Tink
by SammyMae
Summary: While on a takedown in Vegas Joe calls Ranger with news of a contract out on Stephanie. When that threat turns out to be from the California branch of the Slayers, Joe calls the FBI for help. That help arrives in the form of a beautiful blonde with strong ties to Ranger... And she knows all of his secrets. R/S. Don't own anything. Just playing.
1. Chapter 1

_**AN: This was my first fan fiction, and I have decided after a couple of years and writing courses, that I need to clean it up. I'm glad so many of you like this story, and I hope you'll enjoy it even more, now that I've shined it up a bit.**_

Lula sat gaping at me with a piece of fried chicken frozen halfway on it's journey to her mouth. Quite frankly I was happy that she had swallowed the previous bite before I'd spoken, because I could see clear to her tonsils.

"Can you please repeat that?" Connie asked, her nail file frozen mid stroke. She was looking at me like I was speaking jibberish. I did kind of blurt out my announcement but I was sure it was in English; still, just in case it came out a little garbled, I repeated myself.

Connie and Lula both reached for the pastry box on Connie's desk and seemed surprised that there were no doughnuts in it. My eyes slid to my cousin Vinnie. Vinnie looked just this side of passing out. I think it occurred to him that he couldn't yell at me anymore. There was a rumble of some not so distant thunder, and they started to look nervous. Like maybe what I just told them was a huge lie and that maybe God was about to strike me down for it. You could feel a charge in the air, and it was kind of freaking me out. Connie, unplugged her computer from the wall, just in case, so it didn't get fried.

"Maybe I should go get some more doughnuts so you can uhh process this," I said.

I turned to run back to the black 911 Turbo parked on the street. As I reached for the door there was a blinding flash of light, a loud bang and a shit load of sparks. We all blinked in disbelief. I took a step back from the door, a little afraid of touching the metal door handle. I swear I wasn't lying before.

"Did that actually just happen?" Vinnie asked.

"Yes it did," I said.

"That shit's a sign," Lula said.

"Yeah," Connie said, "It's a sign that you can't bring doughnuts into Batman's car."

"Bummer," Vinnie, Lula and I said.

My cell phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out knowing it would be Ranger.

"Yo," I said.

"Babe, you're off the grid," Ranger said. There was no way of knowing what his emotions were regarding this particular development. I mean it did happen with alarming frequency.

"I'm not surprised; your car was just hit by lightening," I said, and picked at a cuticle, wondering if this would get a reaction from the man in black.

There was a beat of silence as he digested that his low profile sports car and NOT the bonds office that was hit by lightening. I mean forget about the fact that the bonds office is taller; Vinnie is in here.

"Were you in it?" he asked eventually. Probably it was the only thing he could think of to say.

"No."

"Does it still work?" Excellent question.

"I don't know, and I don't know if you want me to try it. If it's any consolation it's not on fire," I said.

We left the "Yet" unsaid. My track record wasn't so great. It'd probably blow up if I tried to start it.

"Did you tell them?" he asked, changing the subject entirely. His voice had gone all warm, and I could hear the smile in it. I couldn't help grinning back. Smoking car aside, it had been a pretty fantastic day so far.

"Yep."

"And?"

"Your car was hit by lightening," I said.

"I'll be there in ten minutes," he said laughing.

He hung up and I tossed my phone into my messenger bag.

"He coming to pick you up?" Lula asked. She put the partially finished bucket of chicken down on the desk and made a noise that was somewhere between a burp and a hiccup, and probably meant she was headed for some serious indigestion.

"Are you going to finish that?" Connie asked.

Lula shook her head, "I'm not hungry." In truth she looked a little green and I glanced towards the bathroom door, making sure there was a clear shot between where she was sitting and the toilet.

Vinnie had been snapped out of his trance, as he and Connie now diverted their attention from me to Lula. Connie looked worried. Vinnie looked like he was thinking about going out to purchase lottery tickets. My announcement, was so far the least improbable thing to happen in the last ten minutes. Lula's declaration that she wasn't hungry, being the most. As far as I could tell, Lula was never not hungry. She could be suffering from the stomach flu, and would start self medicating with a carefully balanced diet of grease, cheese, and sugar.

Connie reached over and put a hand on her forehead.

"No fever," she said and looked back at me, "I think you broke Lula; next thing you know she's gonna join a convent. Would you please elaborate? You can't just come in here dressed in Rangeman black, ask for new skips and then say, 'oh by the way I married Ranger.' I need more details."

"You know how we went to Las Vegas to go after Dupuis?" I asked they all nodded, "Well we caught him, Tank and the guys brought him back, and Ranger and I stayed behind to see a magic show."

"Ooooh that explains it. The magic guy hypnotized Ranger," Lula said with dawning comprehension, colour returning, "So like how long is Batman under his evil spell?" She reached for a piece of chicken; all better now.

"Jeeze! Is it that crazy that he might love me?"

"No we know you love each other," she waved me off with her chicken, "Damn girl we known that for years. Just you guys don't know that. So I gotta ask 'what the hell happened to get your heads outta your asses?' And magic makes the most sense." Connie nodded her agreement, and frankly Vinnie looked a little relieved. There was a perfectly fucked up explanation for what had happened and balance was restored to their universe.

I glared at them all.

"We weren't hypnotized," I growled, "We were walking down the strip and Elvis made Ranger take a flyer…"

"Brave Elvis." Connie commented.

"Agreed; but I guess Elvis gave Ranger the idea because the next thing I knew we were standing in front of a minister saying 'I do'"

"Then?" Connie said.

"Then we went back to the hotel room to make it legal." And we made it legal again and again and again. I felt a goofy smile creep over my face. Ranger didn't need Vegas for magic. Ranger was magic. Connie and Lula started fanning themselves at the thought.

"I thought you got hives when you talked about marriage?" Lula finally asked.  
"Apparently not if you sneak it up on me," I said with a shrug.

"Thought you said, he said, he didn't do relationships?" Connie said.

"Things change," Ranger said directly behind me. We all jumped. Normally I can sense Ranger but I think the electricity in the air must have messed with my Range-dar. He dropped a kiss on the back of my neck and gave my ponytail a playful tug. "Anything new for me?" He asked Connie. Same old. Same old. He was acting like nothing had happened but he was sporting a cat ate the canary evil grin.

Connie cut her eyes to his left hand where he was wearing a simple platinum band. Connie's eyes widened, at the confirmation that Ranger and I were indeed hitched, and she slowly shook her head. Either she was answering Ranger's question or she was shaking her head in disbelief. Either way it pissed me off, just a little bit. These were two of my best friends, as if they didn't believe me!

I gave her a look and stomped my foot causing Ranger's grin to widen. As if to further cement his confirmation, Ranger turned to me and kissed me hello properly, and then tucked a curl behind my ear. His hand lingered to caress my cheek, as he ignored everyone else in the room.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" he asked.  
"I'm sure," I said, "I don't want to have to stun gun you guys again."

Ranger cocked an eyebrow like he was thinking about saying something and then thought better of it. "Do you have a plan, or should I take you back to Rangeman so you can pick out a new car to be your next victim?" There was no censure in his voice, only mild teasing. I say mild because with my track record, it was entirely likely that whatever I did pick would likely be toast before the end of the week. I didn't know whether I wanted to smile at his comment or cringe, I opted for a resigned sigh.

"I'll give the cars a reprieve for now. Take me back to my apartment; the Buick is still there and still indestructible. I'll shower, do what I need to do, and meet you at my parents place for dinner?"

"Let's roll."

Marriage hadn't made him especially loquacious. He put his arm around my waist resting his hand possessively on my hip and led me out of the building to the waiting Cayenne.

I hadn't exactly planned to tell Connie, Lula and Vinnie that Ranger and I decided to be a Vegas cliche; There were other people who needed to hear it first. The problem was, I'd just spent a couple of nights with Ranger, and this morning, before he went to work, he'd decided I needed to fully appreciate what it was like to wake up next to him every morning. I wasn't going to be seeing my parents until that night, and I couldn't just go over, early because they weren't going to be home for most of the day.

I needed to drop some capture papers off at the office, and there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to keep Connie and Lula from badgering me for details. I considered lying to them, but I wasn't comfortable with it, and avoiding the bonds office, would only piss them off. Ranger's solution had been to give me a toe curling kiss, put me in the Turbo, and said to test the waters by telling them.

I said I'd think about it.

They knew something was up the minute I stepped out of Ranger's car, and walked into the Bonds Office wearing a necklace that had been a gift from Ranger, at the start of the trip. Forget the wedding rings, the necklace was basically a billboard that advertised I'd chosen Ranger over Morelli.

I tried to be all cool and pretend I didn't notice their desperation to know what was going on, and took a doughnut from the box on Connie's desk, flashing my rings. "Got any new files for me?" I asked. Connie had slammed her coffee cup down on her desk, and snatched my left hand.

"What the fuck is that?"

"Oh those?" I said, glancing at my rings, "Ranger and I got married in Vegas." That's when Lula had stopped mid chicken wing, and Vinnie had come out of his office, looking like he would have been less surprised if someone had walked into his office and slapped him with a sandwich. At that point I swore them all to secrecy.

Ranger's grandmother, the drunk couple in line behind us at the quickie wedding place, and the Minister that married us, knew we were married and that was it. I had no doubt that by the end of the day, everyone would know what had happened, but I needed to tell Joe first; I didn't want him to hear it second hand. I only hoped that I would get to him before Connie and Lula's secrecy tolerance finally gave out and they started calling everyone they knew. I suspected that I had about 40 minutes before my mother started calling me.

I was going home to shower and change and then I was going to go to Joe's house to tell him about Vegas. I didn't think it would be a good idea to show up on his doorstep dressed like Rangeman Barbie, only to tell him that I was married to someone he considered a thug who was a few fries short of a happy meal. Someone whose name was strategically embroidered on my breast.

It would be the equivalent of saying, "Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: You."

We rode silently to my utilitarian apartment building. Ranger was in his zone and I was trying to channel his zen like calm while trying to figure out what the hell I was going to say to Morelli. Truth is, I didn't have a clue. I was still reeling from what happened in Vegas.

Let me go back a bit.

It all started a couple of months ago when Joe and I had a fight. To be honest I couldn't even tell you what it was about. It might have been how tight he had Bob's collar or it could have been about the colour of the sky, who knows? The fight itself wasn't important. It was part of our pattern, things would get serious and it became time to sabotage the relationship. At first it didn't feel like it was any different than the fifty other times we'd done it, but on the drive home, I realized that I was just done. I didn't want to play this game anymore, and I decided that this time, it was permanent. With that realization came a feeling of a sort of sad relief that it was finally over. I was certain that once we had a chance to cool off, we could discuss it like adults and he would see that we were better friends than lovers.

Then three days ago I stormed into my apartment after yet another fight with him. We hadn't really said more than a few words to each other since the fight, but things between us seemed to becoming less frosty. Then I brought in my latest FTA and he happened to be standing there when I walked in, looking less than glamourous. He couldn't help himself, and before I knew it, we were yelling at each other in the parking lot of TPD and I ended up telling him do some anatomically improbable things with his anatomy, and drove off flipping him the bird as I pulled out of the lot.

I was still simmering when I stomped into my apartment. "Shit! Fuck! Fuck! Fucking Shit!" I felt that a string of curses was the best way to get things off my chest. I'd apologize to God and my mother later after I'd had a shower. I didn't feel all that much better yet and was about to try swearing in Italian and sneezed instead.

"You're cookie jar is empty; anything you want to tell me about?" I only just managed to not jump out of my skin. Ranger was leaning against my counter waiting for me to be home. I hadn't seen him since the night after I broke up with Morelli. I'd been watching television, when he came in with a bottle of nice wine, dinner, and a box of condoms. He'd walked into my bedroom and dropped them in my nightstand drawer, then fed me. I'd teased him about the presumptuousness of the box, and he told me that he was going away for what could be a while and he wanted to make that night count.

If anything could have made me believe it was really over with Morelli it was that night. Ranger and I had slept together periodically before but there was something about that night that was different, special. Usually, when he just disappeared after a night together, but the next morning, he woke me up to kiss me goodbye, and promised me, he would be back. Then the wind took him away for two months. It had taken me a full day to recover from that night. Not because I was depressed either, Ranger made a promise to be back, so I had complete faith that he would be. No, I actually needed to physically recover. After he left, I went back to bed and woke up 24 hours later, hungry, stiff, thinking, 'Joe who?' and wondering if we really did use up the whole box of condoms.

When I saw him standing there in my kitchen, his skin a little darker from the sun, his hair a little longer, and what looked like a new scar on his right forearm, I was so happy to see him, that I'd completely forgotten about my argument with Joe.

"I don't have a gun anymore." I said and blew out a sigh. So it wasn't quite the traditional meeting of lovers. That was okay; we weren't traditional. In fairness I would have rushed into his arms and kissed him but I wasn't exactly what you would call attractive or even clean at the moment.  
He stared at me, waiting for me to continue. Thinking about smiling.

"I was trying to bring down a skip and I ran out of bullets, " I said, earning a raised eyebrow in response. "Okay so I didn't have any bullets in my gun but I think it's a big step up for me that I was even carrying it!" His lips twitched, "He was too far away to hit him with my purse or my stungun so I threw my gun at him."

"And?"

"It hit him in the head and stunned him enough that Lula was able to flatten him with a body slam and I got the cuffs on him while he was trying to suck air back into his lungs."

"The part about not having a gun?"

"Did I mention this happened at a construction site?"  
He said nothing. Given my current appearance the only other obvious choices were bakery or mill.  
"It landed in a wheelbarrow of wet cement."

He gave a sort of smile and then ran some water in the sink and wet a paper towel. He wiped some of the plaster dust off of my face and kissed me hello without actually touching the rest of my body. The effect on me was the same as if he had plastered himself to me. Uhh no pun intended.

"Someone needs to take a dust buster to you Babe," he said when he broke the kiss. I sighed. I knew. The skip had decided to use a shopvac's blower function as a weapon. The canister had been full of drywall dust.

"Are you volunteering?" That got me the full 200 watts. He found a jug of white vinegar under the sink poured some into a bowl and handed the jug to me.

"Not this time. The vinegar will help get all of the dust off of you; I'll take care of your floor. Go take a shower. Then I want to buy you lunch and discuss a job I need you for."

I didn't want food yet. I smiled in what I hoped was a suggestive manner, which is pretty hard to pull off when you looked like a powdered doughnut "Can't we start with dessert?"

"No." He said, his eyes dilated fully black, "Because once I get you into bed you aren't leaving it for at least a day and this job is time sensitive, so we're on a schedule. When it's over, all bets are off."

He kissed me again, and this time it was a promise of very good things to come. When he broke the kiss, I beamed at him, and then practically sprinted to the shower. I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.

The shower took longer than I thought it would, because once I washed the plaster off, I developed a weird film on my skin. The vinegar got rid of the residue, but then I smelled like French fries and it took half a bottle of strawberry scented body before I no longer smelled like fast food. I got out and found jeans, a t-shirt, a fresh bra and underwear already laid out for me on the bed. I shrugged at this control freakery, because it saved me from having to ask him what to wear. Probably he was going to use up his entire daily word quota while talking to me over lunch, and didn't want to have to waste words on trivial matters like wardrobe. I looked closer at the jeans. They were True Religion, the T-shirt was some designer I had never heard of before, the slim black belt was Gucci and the underwear was LaPerla. They weren't mine and they certainly weren't in my budget. I was too broke to even breathe the air that this budget belonged to.

At this point I had two choices; I could argue with Ranger for buying me expensive clothes while I was only wearing a towel, which could lead to some fun times in bed, and me wearing the clothes anyway or trust him, put on the clothes he wanted me to wear, eat lunch and then go to bed when we were done whatever job, and didn't need to rush. My stomach growled making the decision for me. I needed energy to keep up with Ranger in the sack so I had to eat.

I put on the top, it was a light weight high thread count cotton and extremely comfortable. It almost reminded me of Ranger's sheets. The jeans were soft and supple and hugged my ass perfectly. Okay so everything fit like a glove and I loved it all. I found some black ballet flats to go with it, and walked out of the bedroom.

I found Ranger in the kitchen, heating up a couple of plates of food in the microwave. We really were on a tight schedule, if Ranger had food dropped off because I was taking so long in the shower. Ranger knew that mealtimes were not times for discussion in the Plum family. You sat down, you ate and you didn't waste time talking and risk letting your food get cold. Not being a man of many words anyway, this suited Ranger just fine. When we were finished he cleared the two plates and put them in the dishwasher, and dropped a bit of leftover salad into my hamster Rex's cage. Gotta love a man who thinks of your pets.

"Feel like going to Vegas?" He asked, leaning up against the counter while I grabbed us two fresh bottles of water from the fridge.

"I thought you couldn't go to Vegas because of some weapons violation?"

"It's been cleared up," he said with a minute shrug. I looked over his shoulder out the window. It was gross outside, the sky was grey and soupy looking and according to the radio this morning, we were supposed to get a whole bunch of bad weather. The idea of a couple of days in the desert sounded good to me; especially if I was going to be sharing a bed and room service with Ranger.

"I'm always up for Vegas," I said. "What am I doing?"

"I need bait to help bring in someone who needs to be off of the streets yesterday. Our friend has a favourite blackjack table. He usually camps at the table for about a day, picks up a girl, and then he disappears off of the face of the earth, for months at a time."

"And the girl?"

"Turns up a couple of days later with significant memory loss, a shit load of roofies in her system and a brand new STD."

"Yikes," I cringed.

"The Feds don't have the time to devote to this, considering his long cooling off period, so they've asked us to look into it. We have a bead on him, and the casino would very much like us to take him down discretely. That's where you come in."

"You want me to put myself in his way and get him out of the casino."

"I do," he said, "We'll have eyes on you the whole time." I knew he would so I had no problem with it. Knowing Ranger though we wouldn't be having any fun in Vegas so I had a condition.

"I don't want money for this. I'll do this If you take me to a magic show AND Cirque Du Soleil while we are there."

He tossed an envelope onto the counter. I opened it up to find two tickets to see Chriss Angel's Believe with Cirque Du Soleil. There were days where I really did believe Ranger had ESP.

"That's cheating; it's one show."

"I'm a busy man; it's efficient," he reasoned and folded his arms across his chest.

"Let me pack."

"Ella has already taken care of it," he said.

I wasn't really surprised by that revelation, as there really wasn't any question as to whether or not I'd say yes to this, and we both knew it. I stood up and emptied most of the contents of my purse into my cookie jar. Stun gun, brass knuckles, cuffs, maglight, pepper spray and nail file; can't take any of that stuff on a plane. My purse was much lighter when I hitched it onto my shoulder. I turned around and Ranger was standing right there with a full 200 watt smile on his face.

'I love you," he said and then he kissed me before I could respond to this completely unexpected declaration. His hand slid up the back of my shirt, gently pulling me closer to his body. Things were starting to get really interesting, as in he'd put me on the counter and was standing between my legs and there was some serious groping going on. I had his shirt untucked and my hands at his belt when suddenly he pulled away with his gun in hand. I jumped off the counter and reached for my cookie jar. This got a small smile. He relaxed as quickly as he had gone into action and put his gun back in the waistband of his jeans. I realized why when Joe walked in.

"What are you doing here?" Joe demanded while looking at Ranger.

Ranger said nothing; he wouldn't talk to Joe if he was yelling. Ranger only responded to angry Joe if angry Joe threw a punch and then all bets were off. Joe turned to me, "What the Hell Stephanie? Is this why you have been avoiding my calls? We've been broken up for an hour and you are all ready to just hop into bed with him?"

I did the mother of all eye rolls. Ranger cocked an eyebrow at me and probably wondering if he was poaching. He didn't appear to be concerned either way; I flashed him a small smile before turning back to Joe.

"No, he just got back into town and he wants my help with a take down. And for the record we have been broken up for two months, not an hour." I neglected to tell Morelli about the night Ranger left and the send off I gave him because I actually did just fall into bed with Ranger. I refused to feel guilty about it though.

"No! I won't allow it!" Joe shouted. I wasn't sure if he was referring to being broken up or me going anywhere with Ranger. There was really only one thing I could say to that anyway.  
"You can't tell me what to do!" I narrowly avoided stomping my foot and shouting "You're not the boss of me!"

"Where is this takedown?" he snapped.

"Out of town," I hedged and gave Ranger a sideways look. I wasn't sure how much information he wanted to share.

"What the fuck? Are you talking like him now too?"

"Las Vegas," Ranger said, correctly interpreting my evasiveness.

"Why her?" Joe asked.

"I need a woman for this job; she's a skilled bounty hunter and she has worked well with my team in the past."

Hold the phone! Ranger thinks I am a skilled bounty hunter?!

"You have a very high capture rate Babe."

"She's lucky," Joe said dismissively, "Did you see what happened at that job site today?"  
"Yeah I did. I didn't say she was graceful but she gets the job done," Ranger said.

Hey! I nudged him in the ribs with my elbow. He almost smirked and then he checked his watch, "We have to leave in five minutes; I'll be downstairs when you are ready." He kissed me briefly, but thoroughly, deliberately baiting Joe and made for the door.

"You need to hire more women so you don't have to keep asking her," Morelli snapped, "She probably costs your company a fortune."

Ranger turned and shrugged before walking backwards out the door. I glared at Morelli and picked up my purse.

"You aren't going," He said again. I brushed passed him and put my hand on the door knob to follow Ranger. "I said you aren't going! He's dangerous." Morelli yelled and grabbed my arm firmly above the elbow halting my exit, and dragged me away from the door

"Hey! Ow that hurts Joe. Let me go." I tried to pull my arm free and just like that Ranger was back in the room standing between Joe and I. He grabbed Joe by the wrist in a tight grip, and I saw a muscle tick in his jaw but his voice was calm when he spoke.

"You might want to rethink touching her while you are angry." He said.

Morelli dropped my arm andRanger released him. Joe rubbed his wrist and I was betting he was going to have some bruising there. Well screw him! My arm was going to be bruised. I rubbed my bicep a bit.

"I didn't mean to hurt her, I've never hurt her before, and I'd never do anything to her, and you know it." Joe glared at Ranger.

"There are many different kinds of hurt Morelli," Ranger said. He lifted the sleeve of my t-shirt and examined me to make sure I was fine. I could have told him that I was okay but he would have looked anyways. He always has to check for himself to see that I am in one piece. This didn't go unnoticed by Joe who glowered at us.

"I'm going," I said firmly, "We don't want to miss our flight." I for the door again; this time Ranger kept himself between Joe and I.

"Try not to blow up any casinos," Joe called to my back, "I like Vegas." I flipped him the bird over my shoulder in response.

"Lock up when you leave." Ranger said.

RSRSRSRS

"This is easy Beautiful; all you have to do is go flirt with the man and get him to take you home." Lester Santos said. It wasn't my first time as bait but I had jitters anyway.

"What if he puts something in my drink?" I asked.  
"I'll be watching your drink, I'll tell you if he does." Bobby said, "No worries."

"I'll be nearby the whole time, in case you get into trouble," Ranger said directly behind me. I resisted the urge to lean into him. "Get him out of the casino and we will do the rest."

He glanced around the room at Lester, Bobby and Tank and they cleared out of the suite. He stuck his hand inside my top leaving a cool metal disk inside my bra. He brushed his thumb over my nipple and I bit back a moan. "Tracking device." he said. He then found a space for my wire in the other cup of my bra, again becoming distracted by my breasts, and I was all for saying, 'Fuck the bust. Let's stay in here forever.' I might have said that out loud because he chuckled and then switched on my mic. He rearranged my top again while I collected myself. I was wearing a low cut spangly black tank top and a pair of very tight, black, skinny jeans. When I leaned forward you got a glimpse of the black lace bra I was wearing and when I bent down my matching thong showed. In short, I was super classy.

Ranger slipped a chain around my throat and did up the clasp. His fingers grazed the nape of my neck and my whole body reacted. He promised to get me into bed and keep me there but we had yet to come into any kind of proximity to one since he made that particular vow, and I was beside myself. His little caresses and mild groping weren't exactly helping things.

"Back up tracking device and panic button," He explained as he stroked the cool metal pendant, at the hollow of my throat. I couldn't see what it was around my neck, and I wanted to go look in the mirror. Ranger had other ideas, because he snagged me around the middle, and tugged me back to him, my back to his front. He nuzzled behind my ear and grasped the lobe between his teeth and tugged gently. I tilted my head to give him better access to my neck, I felt his phone vibrate and he released me to answer it.

"Yo." Then proceeded to do some delicious multitasking, kissing me stupid, while he listened to whoever was on the phone. With one last gentle nip to my lip, he hung up without saying another word. He put his phone in his jacket pocket, "Showtime." he said.

He led me into the corridor outside of our suite and pressed the call button for the elevator. When it got there he kissed me and put me in it and then stepped back out.

"Go get em Tiger," he said. I grinned and blew him a kiss as the doors closed.

The plan was pretty straightforward; I was to play the penny slot machines for a few minutes and then he would come down in another elevator. Once I saw him I would go to the Black Jack table where our target, Francois Depuis, would be playing cards. I would offer myself up to him on a platter and away we would go. I waited for the elevator to take me to the floor of the Bellagio casino and caught my reflection in the elevator door and burst out laughing. My pendant was a small silver Batman emblem; Ranger had given me a Batsignal. I was still smiling as I stepped out of the elevator.

I'd fed about $20 into the slot machine before I finally saw Ranger exit the elevator and he didn't look happy about whatever it was that had delayed him. He saw me and some of the tension left his face and he gave me an encouraging almost smile. Thus fortified I made a show of being disgusted with the machine and walked over to the Blackjack table. I brushed my breasts against Depuis' back as I took my seat.

"Oh sorry!" I said when he turned to look at me.

His gaze ran up and down my body for a second. He leant back in his seat to check out my posterior. Subtle.

"Nice ass Blue Eyes; too bad your tits are too small." He said and went back to his cards. Shit! Now what do I do?

I heard snickering through the small earwig I had in my left ear. Shut up Les.

"Improvise," Rangers disconnected voice said in my ear. Following orders, I reached into my purse and pulled out a bottle of over the counter eye drops and squirted some into Dupuis' drink. I figured it was only fair what with the roofies and all.

20 minutes and a few lucky hands of blackjack on my part later, Dupuis took off like a shot for the little boys room. I waited outside of the mens room door until I was sure he was probably on the toilet. I pulled my semi legal, bought on the internet, BEA badge out of my purse just in case anyone else was in there with Dupuis. I opened the door and slipped in and showed my badge to a guy at the sink. I indicated that I wanted to know if there was anyone else in there with him and he pointed to the centre stall. He hurried out of the bathroom, leaving me with, the only other person in the bathroom and had to be Dupuis. I pulled the stun gun Ranger had given me back in the suite out, of my purse, grabbed a towel from the counter, dropped it down on the floor and knelt down on the towel in front of the stall. I don't care if we were in the Bellagio, men are gross and there was no way my bare knees were touching that floor. I prayed that I wasn't going to zap an unsuspecting victim and tagged him in the ankle. He farted and went inert. Okay, I got him incapacitated. Now what?

I went into the adjoining stall and climbed up onto the toilet and peaked over the wall. It was Dupuis… Thank God. I hoisted myself overtop of the stall; not an easy feat in ridiculously tight skinny jeans and heels. I may have cursed a couple of times but I finally made it into the stall with him.

"Are you alright Little Girl?" Tank asked with barely controlled laughter in his voice. My cursing had been a little inventive. I put some flexi cuffs on Dupuis and unlocked the stall door.  
"Yeah I'm good. We're in the mens room and I could use a hand," I said and went to wash my hands. Moments later Bobby, Ranger, Tank and Lester came in with weapons drawn. They stared in horror at Dupuis on the toilet. His pants were still around his ankles and his head was resting on the roll of toilet paper.

"You guys can take it from here right?" I asked sweetly and sashayed past them.

"That's just cold," Tank said as he motioned for Lester and Bobby to haul Dupuis to his feet and fix his pants.

"Babe," Ranger said. He was smiling as he held the door for me and we walked out of the mens room together. A few minutes later, we were back in the suite, where Ranger was removed the electronics from my person.

"So now what?" I asked breathlessly after Ranger had removed the mic and tracking device and mic from my bra. Is it my fault that he had to feel around for the tracking device for a while? Nooope. Did I complain that he may have taken longer than necessary to find said device? No again.

"Now," he whispered in my ear, "The guys take Dupuis back on the next flight home, where they turn him in to TPD for questioning in regards to another case."

"But what about the show? You bought me tickets to a show and I..." he put his index finger on my lips and I instantly shut up.

"The guys take the next flight home. Your show isn't until later tonight, so we'll leave tomorrow. Get changed into something nice and I'll buy you dinner before we go." He kissed me softly and stepped back. I probably could have been persuaded to miss the show, or skip dinner or…"I'd love to Babe but I have some work to do and I have a meeting with hotel security in a few minutes. Don't worry, I'll get you into bed before the end of the night and you won't be disappointed." He gave me a look that warmed me all the way to the tip of my toes. Yup tonight was going to be goood.

I slipped into the bedroom and found the suitcase that Ella had packed. She'd filled the bag with black clothes for any occasion. Since I was working for Rangeman on this takedown, it had to be all black all the time. Even the underwear was black. I sighed. I was tempted to tell Ranger that I was going to run down to the hotel lobby so I could go shopping for something with a little colour when I caught a glimpse of white at the bottom of the bag.

It turned out to be a simple, white cocktail dress. Thankfully I didn't need to do anything about my makeup because with my luck I would get some on the dress during the application process. I shucked all of my clothes, including my black underwear and pulled on the dress. I looked in the bag and found a pair of silver heeled sandals to go with it and changed my shoes.  
I fluffed up my hair and then took appraisal of myself in the mirror.

The dress was almost indecently short and lightly skimmed my body. It was a good thing I wasn't wearing any underwear or you would have been able to see panty lines through the light weight silk. I turned around to check out my ass.

"Oh my god!" I squeaked.

The dress was a very low backless. Another inch and my ass would be hanging out. I ran over to the desk and grabbed the chair. I dragged it and put it sideways in front of the mirror. I sat down and used my compact to see just how full the moon was when I sat down.  
Miraculously the dress seemed to stay in place. I stood up again and smoothed the fabric, wondering at Ella's ability to make me look sexy with simple looking clothes. The lack of fabric, should have made the dress look slutty, but it didn't. It suggested more than it showed, and I was willing to bet it would meet Ranger's definition, of 'something nice.'

I heard the door open and turned as Ranger walked into the room. He stilled immediately and didn't say anything.

"Do you like it?" I asked nervously.

His voice dropped an octave, "Babe."

I took it to mean yes. His stare had me rooted to the spot until he motioned for me to twirl in front of him. He still didn't comment about the dress, but the look he was giving me had my heart racing. "You're still wearing the necklace." he noted and I blushed. I was feeling oddly nervous, under his stare. He strolled towards me and put his hand on my bare back and I had to work hard at remembering to breathe.

"I like my own personal Bat signal. It means I know you'll always be there when I need you," I said in a small voice.

He smiled warmly at me and drew me closer, his teeth tugged at the lobe of my left ear and it was good thing he was holding me up, because my knees had given out. "I'll always be there; necklace, or no necklace," He whispered.

"D-did you want it back?" I asked nervously.  
"Keep it," he said and chastely kissed my temple, "Come on, we're going to be late for our reservation."

After dinner and the show, Ranger and I walked down the strip enjoying the lights of Las Vegas from street level. Ranger had his arm draped possessively around my shoulders and was holding me close as we walked down the busy strip. It was nice. It was peaceful even, if you ignored the various men shouting at us, trying to pass us cards advertising casinos and strippers. We were standing outside the Venetian, when Elvis stepped out in front of us and basically forced Ranger to take his flyer. Ranger looked at the flyer and sort of half nodded at Elvis and we walked on.

Ranger handed the paper to me and said, "Well you are wearing a white dress." I looked down at a flyer for a quickie wedding chapel.  
I laughed, wishing, to my surprise, that it wasn't a joke,"Too bad we don't have any rings."

I hoped that I'd sounded flippant and that I'd managed to keep the regret out of my voice. We walked a little longer and went into the Venetian because I wanted to see the canal boats. Ranger excused himself for a few minutes, probably to go find the little Bat's room. He was gone a long time and I was just starting to wonder where he had gotten to when I felt him standing behind me. I leaned against him and he wrapped one arm around my waist and reached into his pocket with his free hand.

He held an open box up in front of my face. It wasn't just any box; it was Cartier ring box with a gorgeous table cut diamond ring inside. For the second time that night, it was a good thing he was holding me up because my knees went weak. Not from fear, more from shock that Ranger had, in the last 48 hours, told me he loved me and was now holding an engagement ring in front of my face.  
"Now you have a white dress and a ring. Need anything else?"

There were, in fact, three rings; his wedding band, my wedding band (a slimmer version of his) and the engagement ring. We found the quickie wedding chapel from the flyer, and went inside to look at ceremony options. We chose not to get married by Elvis, opting for a simple ceremony, and then we sat in the pews as we watched three couples get married ahead of us. The wait did nothing to add to my nerves, or take the shine of the spontaneity of the situation. Instead, it just made it so that I was bubbling with excitement, when we said our vows. I was smiling so hard that my cheeks hurt, as Ranger said his vows, and when we kissed, he held me tighter than he'd done in a long time.

Our wedding night had been spectacular, and we'd missed our flight the next morning, deciding that room service, lack of interruption, and a massive bed, were the perfect way to continue our celebration from the night before. Ranger booked us on a red eye for that night, and we very nearly missed that flight as well.

I had only one regret about the whole thing and it was Joe. There was no easing him into this. No dating, followed by an engagement and then a wedding. Just a BAM! Stephanie and Ranger are married. Yes Joe had been an ass; yes he and I were through but he didn't deserve to find out about it through the Burg grapevine and I knew that as soon as we told anyone it would go through the Burg like wildfire. He would find out today and I was sure it wasn't going to go over well. I just wanted to get to him first.

We pulled into a parking space in front of my apartment building. How Ranger always managed to get a spot right near the door, I'll never know. I was about to get out of the car, when I spotted Morelli's jeep in the lot and thunked my head on the dash a few times. Ranger grabbed my pony tail to stop my attempts at self concussion.

"Want me to wait here?" he asked. I shook my head no; I really didn't want a repeat of Hawaii.  
I reluctantly got out of the SUV and stepped directly into a stream of greyish water that seemed to be flowing from the dumpster and my shoulders slumped. Perfect. As I was walking towards the building Ranger called out, "Hey Manoso!" I turned at the sound of his voice and grinned when I realized what he had called me, "Looks good on you Babe." He was smiling his zillion watt smile and I forgot to care about the rain and the stream of I don't wanna know that was rapidly becoming a lake. My own smile lasted until I made it into the building where I discovered the elevator was out of order and someone was working on it. I was wet from the rain and I was tired.

I grumbled as I took the stairs to the second floor, my sneakers squelching as I took each step. They were probably trash after that puddle. I stood outside my door contemplating this and trying to delay the inevitable. Destroyed shoes, and soggy clothing, notwithstanding, I was really happy and the last thing I wanted was have this argument. What I really wanted was to go on a real honeymoon with Ranger. I knew what he was like in a tropical location and I wanted a repeat performance; this time as a real married couple instead of just pretending. Just a week of me and Ranger and a beach. I sighed and then fished out my keys.

I opened the door and heard the sound of dog nails scratching against tile, in a bid for traction, and I braced for impact as Joe's dog Bob came hurtling towards me. After the initial impact I crouched and gave the wiggly yellow wookie a big hug. "How's my boy?" I asked him and scratched his ears, looking for his owner. I saw the duffle on the floor. Joe was expecting to spend the night.

"Bob missed you," Joe said warmly and took a step towards me before his eyes rested on my chest, "Nice outfit." he added sarcastically. The friendliness in his voice immediately dissipating.

"I was working and this is my uniform. I told you I was going to start working full time for him. He pays better than Vinnie and I use half of his security staff for my bigger cases anyways. They might as well get some credit for it," I said, trying to keep my cool.

"Is Ranger insured?" Here's the thing about Joe, he's a good guy; he really is. He's just under a lot of pressure and it has a tendency to turn him into a bit of a dick. This often leads to massive fights where I'm just as big an asshole as he is and then we have a few tense encounters where we make up by drinking beer and watching TV before eventually falling back into bed together. He probably was thinking that by being here he had done his part to say he was sorry for being a jerk.

"Don't be like that," I said heavily as I tossed my keys and bag onto the counter.

"Whatever," je said with a scowl, "How was Vegas? Blow anything up?"  
"No," I said primly, "As a matter of fact things didn't go exactly to plan but I improvised and we got our guy with no damage to the Bellagio. I even remained perfectly clean."

"I saw Santos yesterday, and I dropped by last night to apologize. Where were you?"

"Ranger and I stayed so he could take me to dinner and a magic show. It was the deal we made for my assistance." Joe didn't have anything to say to that. He stalked to my fridge and grabbed two beers, and held one out to me. He took a second to do some deep breathing, trying to rein in his own temper. The implications of me staying behind with Ranger were pretty clear, or so he thought. There was no question that I'd slept with Ranger, and he was trying his damnedest not to fly off the handle. I'd done nothing wrong, and nothing would be served by being a jealous bastard. He turned to face me, and held out a conciliatory beer.

"Listen Cupcake, before you left I got a little out of line. I wanted to say that I am sorry and..." He stopped. I had taken it with my left hand without thinking and my rings had clinked on the bottle. Joe wrenched the bottle out of my grasp and grabbed my wrist so he could look at the rings. "What the fuck Stephanie? You pretended to get married?! Again?! That man looks for any excuse he can to stick his tongue down your throat." He might have been right about that last part. Ranger certainly liked to kiss me and he did say that he was an opportunist. He did take any chance he could get. Not that I had ever seriously complained.

"I suppose like last time, as part of your cover you just had to share a room? I suppose he told you that the room was bugged so you had to maintain your cover in there as well? Tell me, how many times has he used that excuse to get into your pants? I've heard all about how he is always the one to put on your wire. And all of those trips to the alley. Do you really have no clue what he's doing?"

I am pretty sure Joe could have kept mining that vein for some time but the vein in his forehead was starting to look a little, well, intense. I had to stop him before he had a stroke. Also I was getting mad. I mean I'm not helpless and sixteen and Ranger wasn't taking advantage of me. Unlike someone else in this room who did just and then wrote about it on the bathroom wall.

"Oh just shut up and stop waving your hands around. Seriously. You are spilling beer all over my kitchen!" I snapped, "Ranger didn't trick me in to doing anything. We didn't pretend to do anything. My job was to play Black Jack in a slutty outfit and try to get some guy to follow me out of the casino. That was it."  
"And I'm sure he had nothing to do with wiring you for the job." his voice was dripping with sarcasm.  
"Have you ever had a woman rig your wire? Why should it be different for me?" and that's when the penny dropped and Morelli actually processed what I had said earlier. I knew he hadn't been listening to me.

"The rings are real?" He asked, suddenly quiet and very still. Not like a deflated regretful quiet but a dangerous, I kind of wish that Ranger had come up with me, kind of quiet. Then again if he had, well there would probably be a huge fight and blood is a bitch to get out of carpet. I didn't really think Joe would hurt me, but he had been drinking and historically, the Morelli temper, combined with booze was not exactly the recipe for rational, nonviolent behaviour. Smart Stephanie was saying, Diffuse the situation; let him down gently so he doesn't trash your kitchen.

"He wouldn't give me fakes," I said, because apparently Stupid Stephanie was in control of my mouth.

Morelli glared at me, "I meant, you really got married? Were you drunk?" He demanded slowly through gritted teeth.

"Yes we did. No, I wasn't drunk. Why do you think I have no brain or free will when it comes to Ranger? Do you think he hypnotizes me or something so that I am incapable of making any kind of rational decision?"

"Maybe because you do everything he has ever asked of you even if it's completely insane. Like I don't know, getting married in Vegas after one fucking date!"

"Joe, it's not like he's a stranger. He's probably the best friend I have ever had, and I didn't intentionally decide to fall in love with him. In fact we both thought it was a bad idea for a long time, and he kept telling me to fix things with you. I tried damn hard to do it too, because it would have been a hell of a lot easier to love one man and not two, but you can't just stop loving someone, because you want to. I'm sorry Joe, I really am, because I do love you, but the difference is…" my voice trailed off, what I was about to say, sounded awful. Whether it was the truth or not.

"Is what Cupcake? The difference is what? I've asked you to marry me half a dozen times and you won't even answer me. Tell me what the difference is!"

"I need him." I said quietly, "You kept asking me to give him up and I couldn't do that. I'm not sure I would know who I was without him. He doesn't want me to be anything that I'm not, and he just wants me to be happy doing whatever I want to do.

"And I what? Clipped your wings?" Joe scoffed.

"Yes! You wanted me to be something I'm not, and I tried to change for you, but I'm not cut out to be the Burg housewife with two kids and a dog. I know you realize that now, and I know you've been trying to change what you want, but you shouldn't have to. We're good friends Joe, we really are, and I like talking to you at the end of the day, and watching hockey with you, but we both know I could never be your wife."

"And you can be his?"

"Yes," I said. When Ranger asked me I had no doubt. I didn't even have to say yes. He knew it was right too. We'd danced around each other for so long, each of us coming up with excuses for why we couldn't be together. Each of us just needed to take the step that would knock down the walls we had built up. I took that step when we left Joe in my apartment, clearly choosing him over Joe. He took that step by getting the rings. Joe's expression turned from anger and disbelief to one of sadness as he realized the truth of that simple word.

"I don't know if I can accept just being your friend Cupcake," Joe said sadly. He called Bob over and snapped his leash onto his collar. Bob, for once looked subdued, sensing now wasn't exactly the time to be his goofy self. Joe kissed me roughly on the forehead and walked out of the apartment without saying goodbye. I locked the door behind him and walked into the kitchen and took a sip of the half empty beer and then picked up some paper towels and started cleaning up the beer Joe had spilled on the floor. I managed to get it all mopped up before I started to cry. I didn't regret marrying Ranger but that didn't mean I wasn't going to miss Joe.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Morelli came out to the parking lot and walked over to the black Porsche Cayenne parked next to his jeep. Part of him wanted to bash the headlights in; instead he put Bob and the duffle into his Jeep and walked around to the passenger side of the Porsche and knocked on the window. The door clicked as it unlocked and Joe climbed in.

"You said you would let her come to you," Ranger said tossing his phone into the centre console after disconnecting. Hector was out of touch, Tank had just told him he'd been gone for about a week. He it was said business; with Hector that usually meant a body count.

"You weren't supposed to marry her," Joe shot back. Ranger did the whole no response response, "Are you going to stay married?"

"That's the plan," Ranger said.

"Why?"Joe asked, "Because of this shit?" Ranger stared impassively at the building. Morelli wasn't sure he was going to answer.  
"No, we're going to stay married, because I need her. I love her." Ranger said after almost two minutes of silence. That was it. His only explanation!? Joe took a breath, and clenched his fist, resisting the urge to punch the dash, or Ranger.

"I thought we made an agreement when I called you? You were supposed to convince her to live in an apartment on Haywood. You were supposed to convince her to take a desk job. Instead you turned her into bait and then you wined her and dined her and married her."

"She didn't hesitate."

"What?!"

"She didn't hesitate; she didn't need to think it over for weeks. I told her I loved her, I asked, she said yes, we got married all in under two hours. She wasn't right for you Morelli."

"And she's right for you? With your crazy life? You trying to get her killed?" Joe asked without thinking. He was angry and having a hard time not cold cocking Ranger. What's he trying to do? Pour salt on the wound? Ranger didn't dignify the questions with so much as a twitch of a facial feature let alone a verbal response. They both knew he was too good to do anything without seriously weighing the consequences.

Not that Morelli knew about it, but even the DeChooch deal had been carefully thought out. It made her re-examine her relationship with Morelli and made her carefully think about what she wanted. Ranger was nothing if not patient. He was content to poach and steal moments where he could while she chose between the Burg and the kind of life he could offer her. He loved her, he needed her in his life but he wanted to make sure she fully understood what it meant before he offered it to her. He was certain after Orin tried to set fire to her, that she'd run, and he wouldn't have blamed her if she had. She'd done the opposite, and run towards him. That was when he decided to put the wheels in motion, to get into a position where he could start a life with her.

"Fine," Joe said, after staring out the window for a few minutes, waiting for a response from Ranger that wouldn't come, "I'll let you know what's going on with the investigation. Have you heard anything?"

"No. We've only been back for a couple of hours, but I have my men on it." Yeah but his best man had disappeared. Not the news he'd needed today. Hector's contacts were better than his.

"I've had to call in the Feds. Does she know about it yet?"

"No."

Ranger's terse answers were infuriating. He also hated that the whole time they had been talking Ranger had yet to make eye contact. The man was constantly on high alert. Joe was betting that he slept fully clothed and armed at all times. He bet they had sex while he had one hand on his gun. The thought of them together made Joe nauseous and he pushed the thought away to focus on the matter at hand.

"What are you going to do now?" Joe asked.

"Probably I'm going to go make sure that idiot isn't headed for Stephanie's apartment," Ranger replied and got out of the car.

Joe swore and called it in. A kid in baggy jeans who was obviously carrying and definitely didn't look like he belonged in this neighbourhood, had just ducked into the building behind an elevator repair man who was on his way out.

Ranger silently followed the punk into the building and watched him get into the elevator. He took the stairs two at a time and made it to the second floor before the elevator did. He watched the kid make his way to her apartment and saw him pull out a tool to pick the lock. Ranger pulled out his glock and casually leaned beside the door frame.

"You don't want to do that," he said casually. The punk stopped what he was doing and looked up at the black clad mercenary and paled. He reached for the weapon at his hip and in a flash Ranger him disarmed and pinned up against the wall.

"Not a good idea to go after my wife," he said conversationally. He was surprised at how naturally he words came his lips. He'd wanted her ever since she walked into the diner. Knew he'd wanted more than just sex with her when she called him while cuffed to her shower. Knew that he'd make her his when she called to ask him if he was okay when he was FTA. He may have wanted her to choose what she wanted but he wasn't beyond applying pressure. Morelli never really stood a chance now that he thought about it. All these years and Morelli thought that Stephanie needed to get Ranger out of her system when really it was the opposite. His blank face was firmly in place while these thoughts were passing through his head and the silence was causing the punk to become more and more intimidated. Making him talk would be easy.

A slow smile spread over Ranger's face as the image of a completely different woman popped into his head. She would whole heartedly approve of the mind games he was inadvertently playing because he was distracted by thoughts of Stephanie. He frowned she would have approved. Past tense Manoso. Past tense. As always, that particular realization was like a punch to the gut and he fought the breathlessness associated with her loss. The only way he'd been able to cope with her loss, and eventually come to terms with it, was Stephanie. Still there were moments, like this one, where a memory of her would push passed the carefully erected walls he kept all thoughts of her locked behind, and he felt like it would have been easier to lose his right arm, than her.

Ranger dragged the kid to the stairwell by the scruff of his neck more roughly than he might have otherwise because the combined thoughts of the threat against his wife and the thoughts of her had him in a state of barely controlled rage. He wasn't about to lose someone else that he loved if he could help it. Once he got to the stairwell he ordered himself to get a grip. He wasn't about to lose it in front of Morelli.

"Who ordered the hit?" He asked quietly, his voice devoid of anything, his eyes deadly serious.

"Nobody. I was just going for her TV," The punk said. He was young, very young.

Ranger slammed him up against the wall again and gently reminded the kid that he had a weapon, by brushing the barrel of his gun along the kid's jaw.

"Try again." His voice was still level.

"It's an initiation. The Slayers…" The kid's voice came out as a squeak.

"They're all dead," Morelli said arriving on the scene. He looked at Ranger, "The cavalries' coming."

"Don't need them," Ranger said, "The Slayers?"

"Change of management. They want her. The bitch is supposed to pay for what happened." Ranger accidentally punched him in the face.

"I didn't see that," Morelli said. He appeared to be fascinated by the exit sign above the door.

"He must have slipped," Ranger grinned and the punk swallowed hard.

"I hate when that happens," Morelli said, genially. They had always been able to work together where Stephanie was concerned. Mostly. Morelli looked at the punk who was now sporting a broken nose. "Talk to me. Who is calling the shots?"

"Someone from Cali," he said. He was taking the hit well; they had to give him that. He wasn't crying and he hadn't pissed himself.

"Has he got a name?" Morelli asked.

"You a fucking cop?" Ranger slipped again. He'd better talk soon, Morelli thought, or he's gonna need plastic surgery to fix what'll be left of his nose.

"Name," He commanded again while Ranger stood silently threatening the banger who was now sufficiently terrified. Maybe because Ranger's finger had curled around the trigger and his gun was pointed at the idiot's knee. More worryingly for the punk was that Morelli seemed to have selective blindness. Probably deafness too. Stephanie was involved and he might be pissed at her but he loved her and he was willing to let as many senses as necessary take a holiday if it got them the information faster.

"Big D."

Fuck! They both thought though neither one showed any change in expression.

"Do you know who I am?" Ranger asked. The kid nodded, "Make sure Big D knows who I am and what she is to me. Make sure he knows he doesn't want to mess with me."

Ranger released the kid who almost fell down the stairs trying to get away as fast as he could. Morelli and Ranger left the stairwell and walked toward Steph's apartment.

"Want to tell me why you let him go?" Morelli asked as Ranger stowed his gun.

"I have a reputation."

"Think that will deter them?"

"If they're smart." They walked back to her apartment and Joe pulled out his phone to call off the backup.

"I was a bit harsh with her," Morelli said and looked towards Stephanie's apartment, "I didn't mean to be. The being married thing threw me a bit."

"You touch her again?"

"No. I wouldn't have hurt her the first time either. Man give me a break; I'm not my father."

"Would you have taken that chance if it had been me that had grabbed her like that?"

"I guess not."

The problem was that Morelli knew there was no way Ranger would ever handle Stephanie roughly. He used other means of persuasion. If their roles had been reversed Steph wouldn't have gone to Vegas and they both knew it. All Ranger would have said was 'Babe, Please.' And she would have stayed. Her willingness to do anything for him should have been Morelli's first clue that she'd choose Ranger in the end and he wondered how he had missed it.

Morelli winced when he heard Stephanie crying through the door and a muscle worked in Ranger's jaw. He waited for Joe to turn away to talk to dispatch, before he picked the lock and removed the safety chain. When Joe turned around he was already inside. Fuck how did he do that?


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN: Still just more polishing! All mistakes are mine, and everything cool belongs to J/E. All First person perspective is Stephanie's.**_

"Babe," Ranger said when he walked in and sat on the floor beside me. I leaned against his shoulder and he gathered me into his arms.

"I told you not to stay," I sniffed.

"I was on the phone and I saw him leave; he didn't look happy," Ranger said.

"I'm such an idiot. What did I expect? Him to say, 'Oh well done for bagging Batman; go with my blessing!'"

"He cares about you."

"Sure but he doesn't love me. Not really. Well not like you do, anyway," I said. I wasn't sobbing anymore which was a good sign. The tears hadn't stopped yet unfortunately, "I'm sorry; you shouldn't have to see this. I mean how fun is it to sit and watch your new wife cry over her ex?"

I made a futile attempt to stop my tears by taking several deep breaths. He looked at me tenderly and wiped my eyes.

"You've loved him in some way for most of your life; I'm not expecting you to stop having feelings for him." He tilted my chin up so that I was looking at him. He smiled, "I won't tolerate poaching though."

I snorted out a bit of a laugh at his hypocrisy. One of the reasons I let Ranger poach was that nobody in the world was better at kissing than he was. And the arrogant bastard knew it too. I gave him a shove and he pulled me onto his lap. We sat like that for a while, Ranger holding me while I gathered myself. He was better than a Boston Cream for making me feel better.

"We have to go Babe," he finally said after what could have been days, but was probably only minutes.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I want to get you home and out of these wet clothes," he said with a predatory grin.

"Is that all you think about?" I laughed.

"No," he said, "But you are soaked and as appealing as the wet t-shirt is, you are shivering, and that's not a good thing. You need to change and you needed to do laundry before we left. Fortunately you have clean dry things at my place." He said most of this to my chest, I looked down and saw that I was at high beam and the shirt was clinging. I could see how that could be distracting.

"My nipples always look like this when you walk into the room," I admitted, and then my teeth started to chatter.

"Good to know." he laughed, "Change of plans. I don't think you are going to make it. Go shower and get warm. I'll see if I can find you something to wear home."

I stripped in the bathroom and stepped under the spray. I stayed there until the hot water was gone and my skin was a nice rosy colour from the heat. I stepped out into the steamy bathroom and found one of Ranger's black sweaters, (I think the one he had been wearing) and a pair of yoga pants on the toilet seat. I dressed quickly, taking comfort from his sweater, imagining that he was holding me in his arms and then my eyes flew open in the realization that I didn't have to deny myself the pleasure anymore. I could go to him completely guilt free. I walked out of the bathroom to find him in the kitchen emailing on his phone. I ducked under his arm, so I was in his, wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him. He put his phone down, and returned the embrace.

"Your hair is still wet," he said and brushed my wet curls off of my face, "you'll get cold again."

"You'll think of something to warm me up. Maybe another shower? You did say that you are good in the shower. It'll have to be your shower though; I'm out of hot water."  
He gathered my wet hair into a ponytail and pulled it through the back of his Navy SEALS hat.

Then he tugged my ponytail so that it tilted my head back and he kissed me stupid. The spell was broken by the sound of my phone ringing and the answering machine picking up. My mother's voice came through the speakers.

"Dinner. Tonight. Be here or you are never eating pineapple upside down cake ever again," she snapped into the phone. The machine clicked off.

I looked at the watch on Ranger's wrist, "Connie and Lula held out longer than I thought they would by almost an hour," I said. Ranger laughed and kissed me again.

"Come on Babe, we should leave if we are going to make dinner. I'd hate for you to miss out on pineapple upside down cake."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I got to my parents house. Grandma wasn't home, there was no Valerie and crew; it was just mom and dad. I'm used to a parent being at the front door when I pulled up, and this time was no different, Dad was waiting at the door. I nearly fell out of the Cayenne when I saw him there. My father didn't answer the door; that wasn't part of the division of labour in my parents' house. Yet there he stood on the front step. When we got to the porch he took my hand and inspected the ring and turned to Ranger, "This the one you bought a few months ago?"

What?!

Ranger nodded.

"Denny find the stone for you?" Another nod. "You have good taste."

"Thank you."

My dad finally looked at me, "Your mother is pissed at me for not telling her that Ranger approached me before he went away. He said that when he asked, you'd probably elope and I didn't want you to have to worry about a big wedding if you didn't want it."

"Wha-?" I managed to get out stupidly. He didn't buy the rings in Vegas?

"I'll give you two a minute," my dad said with a smile and walked back inside.

"You've had this for months?!"

"Only a few days but I bought it months ago. The ring had to be made, and I picked it up before I came to pick you up the other day."

"But-"

"They were in my bag in the hotel room," He explained.

"That explains why they fit so perfectly. I just thought it was your usual Batman luck. I didn't realize it was the result of careful planning." I thought the wedding was spur of the moment, and I'd loved that. Knowing that he'd been thinking about it for a while made my heart do a couple of summersaults, as I gaped at him, processing it.

He chuckled.

"I wasn't planning to elope in Vegas, Babe. I was actually thinking Fiji and a priest on the beach but the moment felt right."

I smiled so hard it hurt. I knew things were different when he left last time. I knew it wasn't just me. Ranger likes to make love, when he left last time he'd woken me up to say goodbye and it had been sweet and wonderful and earth shattering. I felt like he was telling me that I was his. It's why I avoided Joe; I didn't want Ranger to come back and hear rumours that we were together again.

"Can we still go to Fiji?" I asked. He chuckled again and kissed me. Curtains all along the street twitched as people watched him practically kiss the pants off me. Phones would be in hands and all of Trenton would know that I was making out with Ranger on my parents' front step.

My mother banged sharply on the door once, "We'd better go in before the pot roast dries out," Ranger said as he pulled away reluctantly.

We walked into the house and my mother said, "I unplugged the phone after the first call. People really need to mind their own business."

My mouth fell open. She was one of the biggest gossips in the Burg. I couldn't believe she'd just said that. She handed me a bowl of mashed potatoes and shooed me towards the table but I didn't know if I should leave her alone with Ranger while she was acting so strangely. She looked at Ranger, "I don't know what to call you Mr. Manoso would you prefer Carlos or Ranger?"

"Either one is fine Mrs. Plum."

"It's Helen," she corrected, "Now Carlos, I know you don't eat the way we do so I have made you a salad with grilled chicken and a balsamic dressing on the side. That being said, I do hope you will at least try some dessert. It is a special occasion, and it is Stephanie's favourite and my little girl knows her desserts."

I stood there holding the potatoes with my jaw still hanging open. Ranger took the serving dish from me kissed my forehead and took it out to the table.

My mother looked at me and made a tsk-ing sound, "I am only upset that you told Lula and Connie before me."

"So you don't have a problem with Ranger?" I asked, bemused. She'd been so set on me marrying Joe that I was expecting fireworks when I got here. Instead she looked at me like I had just suggested that she should buy a pet unicorn and ride it naked down Stark Street.

"Of course not! Whatever gave you that idea? He loves you, he's polite, good looking, successful and he takes good care of you without trying to change you. Why would I have a problem with him?" She seemed truly offended that I had even asked the question.

"But- all this time-Joe?" She rolled her eyes at me and put Ranger's salad in my hands.

"I only pushed you towards Joe because I knew you wouldn't marry him if it was my idea. I saw how close you were getting and I didn't want you to make the mistake of marrying another man who would make you unhappy in the long run. If I had said 'Stephanie Michelle you are in love with Ranger. You can't marry Joseph. He'll just make you miserable.' You would have run down the aisle faster than I could blink."

She turned me around and shoved me into the dining room where Ranger and my father were discussing baseball.  
Wait what?! In my life, my sister and I had each brought several men home to dinner, either that or there was one sitting here for us as a set up, when we arrived. My father kept his head down, and spoke in monosyllables, and only when he had to. Hell he'd had three previous sons in law, and never once engaged any of them in conversation. I was in the Twilight Zone; I was sure of it. For the first time since I divorced Dickie, the conversation around the table was relaxed. Ranger seemed pretty comfortable around my parents and I was eating potroast, looking forward to dessert and not looking for an escape hatch. It turns out I like the Twilight Zone. I like it a lot.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"So she married him huh?" Eddie Gazzara asked as he handed Joe a coffee. They were standing in the break room at TPD. "Can't say I saw that one coming. Personally I always thought it would be you. Her mom is probably ironing the paper towels at this point."

"News travels fast in the Burg. I swear CNN has nothing on Trenton," Joe said with a wry laugh, and paused, "I knew she would eventually pick him; I hoped she wouldn't but I knew she would."

Eddie gave his shoulder a sympathetic squeeze, "You wanna get a drink? I'm off duty in an hour."

"Nope. Just try not to call me next time she blows something up; I need a little space."

"Gotcha. By the way, you have a guest; someone from the FBI? Said you called them in?"

"I guess I don't get that space yet," Joe said and started to leave the break room.

"She in trouble?" Gazzara asked. His concern was only natural. Stephanie was family after all and he loved her. Fuck, it was either straight up love or homicidal hatred around her; she certainly inspired strong emotions.

"Looks like it. Ranger's got an eye on her; several sets in fact, but do me a favour? Watch her back; I don't entirely trust him."

Gazzara nodded though he thought Joe was an idiot if he thought Ranger wouldn't do everything in his power to protect her. Stephanie was more likely to get herself into trouble without any help from her new husband. At least now that she was living with Ranger people would stop breaking in to her apartment.

Joe tapped on the door frame with his hand, taking a second to gather energy he didn't really have before he walked back out to the bullpen to meet with the FBI agent, assigned to this case. He'd been promised someone with deep, former gang affiliations, and contacts that would expedite the information gathering process. Considering the misoginistic nature of most street gangs, he somewhat unprepared for, the petite woman with thick, waist length, wavy blonde hair, sky high black heels and a nicely tailored grey suit that ended several inches above the knee. She was bent over his desk reading a file while holding a purple travel cup with a hung over Tinker Bell on it. Half of the men in the room, and a few women too he noted with interest, were looking at her ass and she was either completely oblivious or didn't give a shit. Likely the latter, as the skirt hugged her curves too perfectly for it to be anything but deliberate.

She was fully engrossed in the file she was reading; a cold case that had stumped the boys in blue for 15 years. It was a prank, the statute of limitations long gone, it was now the principle of the thing. She was chuckling to herself as she read the details of it. It had been a pretty fucking brilliant prank, involving a break in at a bank, and there was absolutely zero evidence of any kind, and nobody had a fucking clue how it had been done. The file was thick, with various theories, and possible evidence. Each one disproved, at one point. To read the file, you had to put a twenty in a jar, and if you could solve it, you'd get the whole pot. The pot had reached close to $10,000. She looked mostly amused by it. Big Dog walked by and she held up a twenty, which he took to the nearly full jar. Someone was going to have to do a bank run with that thing soon.

He, like a lot of men in the room, was enjoying the view, when he looked down her perfect legs and realized that she was in trouble and she just didn't know it yet. Her left heel was bent towards the toe of her shoe. The minute she put weight on it it was going to snap. The thought had barely had a chance to cross his mind when she stood up. Joe lunged towards her as her heel broke and steadied her before she even had a chance to stumble. He knelt down and slipped her shoe off for her while she balanced herself on his shoulder.

"My hero," she laughed, "They are my favourite pair too. Damn."

"I'm sure there is somewhere you can go to get them fixed," he said as he examined the broken shoe. The shoe was black, Italian patent leather, and they were clearly expensive. He took off the other shoe, for her as she continued to steady herself on his shoulder."

"No, they're done; I've had them fixed like six times in the last three months. Damn I really hate shoe shopping, but I guess I don't have a choice anymore." She took her shoes from him and tossed them unceremoniously into the trash. She was completely unconcerned about standing on the floor of the police station barefoot, personally he would have been a little worried about what she might catch doing so. She had a nice pedicure with dark purple, almost black nails.

"I'm sorry, a woman in Trenton who doesn't like shoe shopping?" Joe laughed, "You can't be from around here." She grinned.

"Like my lack of accent didn't give that away? I don't exactly sound like a girl from Jersey. And for the record, I didn't say I didn't love shoes. The reason I hate shoe shopping is because my feet are so small hardly anyone stocks my size, and shopping for shoes is usually just an exercise in crushing disappointment."

No she didn't sound Jersey, her voice was melodic, slightly husky like she could do jazz music some serious justice. She looked down on him while he still knelt on the floor. Her eyes were large and startling, her irises black, not dark brown, but deep pools of black, darker than her pupils, and stood in sharp contrast against her fair skin and fair hair. The blonde wasn't golden, it wasn't bottle platinum either, it was almost white. She was obviously used to staring because she gave him a minute to gather himself before she said, "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Meagan Harris from the FBI. I'm guessing you are Detective Joe Morelli?"

"What gave it away?" he asked and shook the hand she had extended before returning to his feet. She was young to be an SSA. She must be a hotshot.

"The picture of you and your girlfriend on your desk," she said. Joe winced.  
"Ex-girlfriend as of yesterday it would seem," He said. He took the picture of him and Stephanie at the beach and shoved it into his drawer. "We had a weird on again off again love triangle thing going on. She married the other guy in Vegas last night. Or the night before, I'm not sure."

"Ouch."

"You could say that again."

She tilted her head considering him. He knew she was checking him out and that she liked what she saw. He returned the favour. Up close, with no shoes on she was tiny. Maybe 5' and at most 115 lbs of mostly lean muscle. The assessing gaze and posture reminded him of someone. He just couldn't put his finger on who. She was very feminine, delicate, bordering on dainty. She couldn't be more woman but she was obviously athletic and graceful. Dancer maybe?

She finished deciding how to handle him and said, "Come on; let's get out of here. I need a meatball sub, a giant beer and a hockey game. Find me a bar and we can either work, or you can talk about this to a supportive stranger."

"What about your feet?" He asked.

"I've walked through a lot worse in bare feet. I'll just rub them down with hand sanitizer and go for a pedicure tomorrow. In the meantime, I have socks and sneakers in my car. I'll change when I get there. Let's go, I'm driving."

"As long as your car is not black we are fine," Joe said yet somehow not quite able to summon up the bitterness he had been feeling five minutes earlier. She radiated a calm energy and it was hard to be tense around her.

He followed her out to the parking lot and she was about to step out onto the macadam when he stopped her, "I'm sorry Princess but I just can't let you walk around Trenton barefoot. You'll grow extra toes. I'll get your shoes for you."

She grinned and aimed a key fob in the parking lot and a pair of lights flashed, underneath one of the lights in the lot. "You have to be kidding me," Joe said with a groan.

"You said you'd ride with me, if my car wasn't black. Well, it's not black," She laughed. Her laugh was infectious and as musical as her voice. He found himself staring at her lips, he tore his eyes away from her mouth and back to the car.

"You're right. It's not black. Who, and I mean this seriously, who was horrible enough to think of doing that to a Shelby cobra? It's pink!"

"Actually the colour is called metallic orchid. It's somewhere between hot pink and purple. And it's not all pink, it has black on it!" She wasn't joking, the the black was in the form of two thick stripes up the centre of the car.

"I'm not riding in that; I'll have my nuts repossessed."

"You are riding in it. I am going to get you hammered and I'm not going to drive some giant SUV around a city that I don't know, and I wouldn't feel right putting you into a cab. Besides it's supercharged and it sounds like a badass muscle car, because it is, and it's dark out. Nobody will notice."

"You can see that car from the space; people will notice."

"You'll survive. Now either let me walk to get my shoes or get them for me, would you? My feet, are freezing." Joe looked at Meagan. Her eyes were dancing with mirth and he gave in to an impulse. He scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder, in a fireman hold, and jogged her out to the parking lot in the rain. After an initial squeal of surprise, she laughed as he made for the car. He wrenched opened her car door and deposited her inside and went around to the passenger side. She reached in to the back seat and pulled out a pair of green and silver sneakers, that he knew he'd seen on one of his nieces.

"First the mug, and now the shoes, do you have a bit of a Tinker Bell fixation?"

"I admire her pluck," Meagan said with a grin. He laughed.

"Have you been to Pinos?" He asked.

"Nope," she said, "I should warn you, I can get a bit testy in traffic, and it makes me a bit aggressive behind the wheel. Don't worry, I'm an excellent driver, and I'm mostly harmless."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

She ordered half a sub and a Guinness. He raised an eyebrow at her, "Why only half a sub?" Stephanie would have had the sub, the fries and possibly cake too. He was worried that she was one of those girls who refused to eat. Then he watched her pound back half a pint of Guinness.

"Leaves more room for beer. Have you taken a good look at me, as much as it pisses me off, there's not a lot of room in this gut. This shit is basically a meal replacement," She said.

Not starving herself, the woman just had her priorities straight. She finished the beer and singled for another one, "Start talking," she said.

"About what?" He asked while wondering how she didn't need to burp after downing that much beer that fast.

"The ex-girlfriend or the girl who is in trouble or yourself. The choice is yours," she said, and waved her hand in a get on with it motion.

"Well the ex and the girl in trouble are one and the same and she is a magnet for this shit. I haven't had enough beer to talk about it yet. Myself, well I'm not in a good place right now so I don't really want to talk about me either." She gave him another assessing look and the corners of her mouth tipped up in an almost smile.

"Fine I'll start; you drink. I'm 29, I have a PHd in Social Psychology, I work with the FBI specializing in crowd behaviour and group dynamics. I am NOT a profiler though I have the training. I also have a PhD in clinical psychology so I can probably figure out how you tick if I could be bothered, and I am a good listener. I was sent to you because you have a gang problem. I have a great deal of experience with street gangs so I hope I can help. Oh and I fully intend on taking a cab home this evening. I just wanted to see if I could get the Italian Stallion into a pink muscle car. Someone named Carl owes me $50. He and Big Dog are picking up my car later."

Joe burst out laughing. "Good start. Do you get out into the field much?"

"I used to be but I burnt out a little, so now I'm purely behind. When you catch someone I can tell you what questions to ask, give an educated guess as to whether or not they are lying and tell you which buttons to push to get a confession, but I rarely go into the room. It's harder to observe and remain objective when I'm in the room. Also I am a strategist, I'm good at planning. If I step back I can see the big picture and direct traffic better. Throw in a little hostage negotiations here and there and that's me."

"Husband? Boyfriend? Kids?" There was a flicker of emotion so fast he couldn't catch it and if he hadn't been paying attention he might have missed the hesitation.

"None of the above; anything else?" She asked brightly. Her smile had slipped a little, she was probably nursing a broken heart as well. Time for a subject change.

"Where are you from?" Usually a safe question. Her voice was refined and educated, he was going to go with somewhere in New England.

"Nashua," she said. She was nearly impossible to read and it was unnerving. He thought he detected anger in her voice when she spoke, but it was gone too fast to be sure of anything.

"Do you like dogs?" he asked. Her face fell further.

"Love em. Had a great dane named Duke until three years ago. He was 12. I was very sad to see him go." That's not where he wanted this to go. Shit. He wasn't going to make two beautiful women cry in one day.

"New subject. Why did you paint your car pink?"

"Because." she grinned. This one was genuine and he couldn't help smiling back.

"That's it? Because?"

"Yup, and now that you know everything there is to know about me, it's your turn."

They were in a booth she leaned up against the window, kicked off her sneakers and put her feet up on the bench beside her, crossing her legs. "Speak."  
So he did. They talked until closing. She managed the conversation. She steered it towards Stephanie but he found he could talk about her with a sense of humour, and when the conversation got difficult, she steered it away again. He was able to be honest about how he felt about Stephanie, how he felt about the danger she was in yet again. How when they were together every time she had a high bond skip he would chug antacids by the case. When they were finally chucked out after last call he realized that they really hadn't had that much to drink. Neither of them were in any shape to drive, she was maybe five foot and 115lbs and she had had three pints of Guinness. She was going to feel it later he was sure but neither of them were falling down drunk, both of them were in the realm of buzzed and happy.

They shared a cab and he walked her to her hotel room door. It had felt more like a date than a meeting of colleagues. He found himself staring at her lips again as she was fumbling for her room card. She was chattering about buying herself and updating the Shelby for her 21st birthday when he kissed her. She didn't push him away but she didn't respond. He could tell that she wanted to. The little sigh when their lips met told him that. But she'd caught herself. He lingered for a moment and she put her hand on his chest.

"No." She said, breaking the kiss.  
"I'm sorry," he chuckled ruefully, "I knew it was a mistake as soon as I did it."

"It's trite, but it's not you, it's me. I like you, you are fucking hot, you're funny, and I would love to drag you in here with me. I really would. Lord knows it's been a while and I think we'd have fun, but trust me. I'm really really not the woman for you. I'm not cut out to be a housewife anymore than Stephanie was and I am not a rebound girl either." She said with real regret.

"I understand completely. If you tell anyone this I'll deny it but I don't think I'm ready for anything myself. I honestly don't know what I was thinking." It was a nice lie so she let him get away with it. He wanted her badly. She decided to give him a break and shifted the blame to herself.

"I do. I'm hot and I made you laugh when you needed it, and it's been a long time since I've had so much fun that I didn't exactly discourage you."

"That sounds about right," he said, "Friends?"

"Friends," she said. She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. She went into her room and closed the door. She waited for the sound of his retiring footsteps to dissipate, before she pulled out a set of keys, and pressed a button on her key fob. She waited for the light on the fob to turn green, before she let the veneer crack, and she pressed her back up against the door, as she slid down it, and let the tears fall.

That had been close, three years was a long time and he was hot, and nice, and she was only human. She wanted to give in, if for no other reason than to remember what the comfort of sleeping in a man's arms felt like. She hated sleeping alone, and she never slept well when she did. It had been three years since the last time, there'd been a warm body next to her, and she was tired. So tired.

Only 6 more weeks and this would be over; in 6 weeks she would know if things were the same. If he'd got her message; if he'd waited. The information she had, told her where he lived but nothing about his personal life. What if he'd found someone? She couldn't blame him if he did. He deserved happiness, and if he'd found it with someone else, she'd not interfere. She didn't know how she'd move on, if she could move on, but she wouldn't cause him anymore pain than she already had. The thought of it, made it hard to breathe, made it hard to even think straight and she could feel the crushing weight of a panic attack. The room started to feel smaller, the air too hot, her clothes too tight. She forced herself to breathe normally, to recognize that the airconditioning was functioning perfectly in the room, forced herself to feel it's coolness on her skin. You can't think like that Meagan; you'll never make it through the next six weeks if you do. Keep your head down; keep the faith and do your job like you have for three years. Then you can start thinking about the future.

She collected herself, and got to her feet. She ran her fingers through her hair, rolled her shoulders, and resumed the confident pose that was her armour against the world. She pressed the button again, waited for the light to turn red, and went to the bathroom. She turned the hot water on for the bath, completely ignoring the cold faucet, and stripped. Catching her reflection in the mirror, she stared at it for a long time, as she waited for the bath to fill.

Her body was toned, she had c cup breasts and hips that were proportional to her hips. She had no spare fat and her waist was tiny. Hours of obsessive training, as she tried to run her way into an exhausted sleep, kept her like this. She barely gave her figure a second glance, usually. Genetics had been good to her, and a need to keep fit for her job, were the reason she looked as she did. It had nothing vanity. Vanity wasn't productive, and it was something that could be used against you. She took time with her appearance, because she knew it threw people off balance, it was a useful tool that gave her an upper hand in her line of work, but she did so with little enthusiasm.

That hadn't always been the case. She had liked to look good for him. She liked that the right perfume, the right eye makeup, the right heels, could render him completely brain dead. She liked knowing that when he came to watch her dance, he couldn't keep his eyes off of her, and it always inspired their love making and afterwards, she'd lie in his arms her head on his chest, listening to him talk about whatever the hell was on his mind, their conversation light, as she allowed the deep timbre of his voice, lull her to sleep. She forced her mind away from those memories; they were as bad as the what ifs.

She returned to contemplating her reflection, and turned, so she could look over her shoulder at her back, and grimaced at the ugly scar that took up most of it. It ran across her lower back up to just underneath her shoulder blade. It was wide and angry, jagged and bright red. It was accompanied but several smaller but equally nasty looking scars, like she'd been mauled by some horrific creature. The colour glaring against her pale skin. A portion the large scar was a little redder than the rest; irritated from the lace of her bra strap. No amount of contortion would make it so she could put the cream she had to sooth it, in that particular location, so she suppressed the discomfort.

"Fieldwork?" she said out loud, with a snort, "That's a good word for it."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Hal?" I asked.

"Bomber?" Hal replied. He'd been texting and wasn't really paying attention to me; he was clearly bored.

"Can you give me a boost please?" I asked.

"Uhhh sure?" I knew Hal wasn't worried about lifting me. He was built like a stegosaurus and I'd been working out and eating with Ranger every day since we got married. It had been a little over a month and I could not only button the top button of my jeans but I had even had to go down a size.

Hal wasn't worried about my weight. He was uncomfortable touching Ranger's woman, he was afraid of mat time later. I faced the direction I wanted to look and Hal lifted me easily up to the level of the camera. I followed the direction of the camera with my eye and said, "Okay you can put me down now."

I pulled out my phone and dialled Ranger. "Yo," he said when he answered. I'd like to think it was an affectionate yo.

"Yo yourself," I replied, "Camera three is jammed and it looks like something is stuck in the mechanism."

"Unstick it."

I rolled my eyes. We were married, we spent every night together. He had started to tell me more about himself and he was a surprisingly good story teller when we were alone. Especially in bed after we had made love, but he was still the master of the two words or less sentence when we were in public.

"It's jammed so that it points directly at the neighbours' teenaged daughter's bedroom window. Whew. That was a mouthful."

"Babe."

"I think someone has hacked into the feed to do some peeping. There are some cables here that don't need to be."

I heard him mumble something to someone.

"I've got someone coming out," he said, "Pop a cap on it and come back in; I've got some research I want you to do."

"I know it's a pain in the ass but I don't think shooting the camera is the answer," I teased, deliberately misunderstanding him.  
"I didn't say pop a cap in it. Pop a lens cap on the camera Steph." He was smiling; I could hear it. I did what I was told.

"OOooooooh," I said.

"Smartass; get back to work."

I was sort of Random Task at Rangeman. I did a little bit of everything. Hector had taught me technical stuff for service calls so sometimes I went when they wanted a softer face for the clients. Sometimes I did research, sometimes I traced skips, sometimes surveillance, sometimes I watched monitors. I was an extra body when needed. I was more or less volunteering at this point. It was just weird for Ranger to pay me. I more or less worked to stop myself from going crazy. I felt like he needed reminding of this from time to time.

"Oooooooooh." I said.

"Smartass. Get back to work."

"Thank you Stephanie, you are beautiful and a genius for figuring out that someone was using our cameras for peeping. I don't know what we would do without you here at Rangeman. Good work!" I said in a voice as deep as I could make it.

"Babe," he said and disconnected.

My pet dinosaur, Hal, and I walked back to the Rangeman SUV and I climbed into the back behind Tank. Tank had come along for shits and giggles I guess. I never went anywhere without two burly guys following me. I was used to it now. I could have told Ranger to stop it but that would be like shouting into the wind. A complete waste of time and energy. We were married and he said that it would be something his enemies found interesting, so now I moved with a bodyguard. If Julie could live with it, I guess I could too. And if I said no, he'd just ignore me and they'd follow me anyway. I figured this way was better for the environment since we weren't driving around in two gas guzzling SUVs.

Mack the Knife started blaring out of my bag and I fished out my phone.

"Hey, you ever coming to visit us or what?" Connie asked.

"I was planning on dropping by this afternoon with a bucket of chicken," I said. "Ranger wants me to do some research for him, but I haven't had any real food in two weeks now; I'm going crazy."

"Lula wants you to be her sidekick. She says to bring your gun," Connie said.

I rolled my eyes again. Here's the thing, I like skip tracing; I really do. I like investigating, I like bringing in the bad guys, and I am not even against ripping out the knees of my jeans to do it. My problem is that Lula and I don't have the best track record. If it were just getting a lot dirty or even getting shot at by some crazy I wouldn't mind it. Seriously. Okay so getting shot at is scary and it sucks, but it's also a bit of a rush. It's the time we let loose the alligator, or the herd of cows, or the chickens, or the time I was humped by a million dogs or...No not going there, those were the times I minded. Those times made me feel incompetent.

"Fine," I said.

I hung up with Connie and called Ranger and told him I was going to the Bonds office to give Lula a hand.

"Keep Hal; send Tank back," he said after a beat.

"Why can't I keep Tank?"

"I need Tank and Hal's cell phone has a better video camera." He said and hung up.

"No I love you. No be careful." I muttered and stuck my tongue out at my phone, "I know you find me entertaining but a little romance wouldn't kill you." That might have been a lot unfair. He was very romantic. He was just more a man of action than words, but sometimes a girl just needs to hear the words you know?

A Rangeman SUV was waiting to collect Tank when we pulled up in front of the Bonds office with two buckets of chicken and a dozen doughnuts. I opened the car door and was yanked onto my feet and pushed up against the car. Then Ranger kissed me until my knees buckled. "I love you. Be careful," he said in a low voice. He tugged a curl playfully and then jogged back to the SUV to join Tank and they drove off. Cal had taken Tanks place in the drivers seat.

"You texted him didn't you?" I asked jabbing a finger into Hal's chest. He blushed and shrugged.

"You're just a big softie Hal, a big, stuffed, Stegosaurs," I said.

I strolled into the Bonds office with the chicken and was nearly knocked over by Lula as she ripped a bucket from my hands.

"That kiss was..." Connie said, "I'm having a hot flash."

"What's up with you?" I asked Lula. She flopped down on the sofa and ripped the lid off of the bucket and inhaled deeply.

"I just had a traumatic experience and I have to tell you something. I just, I just needa minute." I watched Lula wolf down half a bucket of chicken. Her hair was hot pink today and she was wearing yoga pants that were stretched to the limit and a very tiny pink workout top. Lula recently started going to the gym. Well that's an overstatement; she signed up for a 30 day free trial and bought the clothes. It was a step in the right direction. Sort of.

"I just saw Super cop," she said when the grease finally hit her system, "He's on a date, with some blonde, that looks like someone shrunk a Barbie. I saw them come out of a hotel and he had his arm around her and I saw him kiss her temple the way Ranger does to you all the time."

"Yeah. She's his new partner on loan from the FBI. She's here as part of some task force and she's living in the hotel. He was probably picking her up," I said. "I've met her. She drives a pink Mustang."

Their eyes went wide as I said this. I did appreciate the heads up; I was probably going to feel a twinge of jealousy when Joe started dating again, and a little preparation for it would make it easier.

"Details," Connie said, "All of them; the Burg is pretty quiet on this one. Seriously. I had no idea that he was seeing anyone until Lula came in here."

"They aren't seeing each other; they are just friends, and she's his partner. I forget her name because he calls her Princess," Silence. "It's a reference to Cinderella, apparently she broke her heel while waiting for him, when she first got here. He caught her before she fell and made an ass of herself in front of the Trenton Police force."

"Hunh," Lula said.

"How long is she around for?" Connie asked.

"No idea."

"And you like her?" Lula asked.

"I do." I said honestly. Okay so she was basically a fairy princess but I couldn't really hold it against her because she had a, well, there's only on word for it, naughty side. I don't mean like naughty nurse naughty, more like she wasn't against bending the rules for a laugh. I actually got the impression she was a bit of a prankster.

I met her while she was having lunch with Eddie and Joe. She was bubbly, and she kept the conversation light (mostly she was critiquing girls at the bar as suitable candidates for Joe as either one night stress relievers or as serious girlfriend material. Her commentary had us all in stitches) but there was something about her that reminded me so much of someone, and I couldn't think who. I said as much to Joe and he had agreed, we figured we must be thinking of someone we knew in high school. Frankly it was driving us both a little crazy.

Like a lot of people in law enforcement she sat with her back to the wall so she could survey the room and she missed nothing. She spoke softly and people listened to what she said and did what she said without question. She was also armed to the teeth. I caught a glimpse of a shoulder holster, a telltale bulge by her ankle that was her backup piece and from the way she was sitting I was pretty sure she had another gun in the waistband of her slacks. But then again she was FBI so she probably had to be armed. What I loved was that she almost never had shoes on unless her feet were on the ground. When she did wear shoes, they were ridiculously high heels. She said it was so she didn't get stepped on while working in a male dominated profession.

"I told Ranger about her and he said that if she went around that heavily armed she probably knew how to use the weapons."

"I think I wanna meet her. I mean sure she's a cop but Morelli ain't so bad and I guess Eddie and Carl and Big Dog are okay, so maybe she's fine," Lula said.

RSRSRSRS

"I thought they were going to do some bounty huntin'" Cal grouched behind the wheel. "At least that's fun. Looks to me like they are just gossiping."

"They will. They gotta eat the food first," Hal said. He secretly loved Bombshell Duty; it was always tinged with a bit of chaos, and it broke up the monotony of daily life. He knew her routine pretty well by now, too. In about 15 minutes they would get into Lula's Firebird and head out.

A movement caught his attention and he leaned forward, suddenly alert "Who is this asshole?"

A kid in an oversized grey hoodie and a pair of baggy track pants jogged into the parking lot of the bonds office. His hood was pulled up against the early November chill. They were on the look out for Slayer wannabe's and this one fit the description.

"Looks like he's got a piece. Shit he's so small he can't be more than 12."

RSRSRS

"Boss, something's about to happen at the Bonds Office," Vince called from the control room. Ranger jogged out of his office to come check the monitors, "Someone's approaching the building with a piece."

"Hal and Cal?" Ranger asked.

"Already out of the car."

Ranger looked closely at the screen and said, "I think you are going to want to save this."

He had a partial smile on his lips, he was betting this was Joe's new friend from the Bureau. He saw the FBI lettering on the track pants and he was almost sure that the jog belonged to a woman. Hard to say now that the figure was stopped and the clothes were baggy "Tank go get the car ready."

"What's up?"

They both looked at the screen as Stephanie walked out to the parking lot. The figure approached her and reached towards his or her back where it looked like they were carrying. He or she was, Ranger could see the holster, but there was something else under the baggy sweatshirt. Probably a cell phone. The sweater rode up, and he could see the feminine curve of her waist. It was definitely a woman. His men saw the reach, Hal got there first and grabbed her wrist. He saw Stephanie's eyes go wide. Then there was about thirty seconds of mayhem and Hal and Cal were disarmed and on their backs. That's when Morelli pulled up and got out of his jeep.

"What the hell was that?!" Vince asked.

"Krav Maga," Tank said.

"Looks like it," Ranger said grinning, "Let's go."

"Bombshell and Morelli look like they are laughing," Vince said.

"They are," Ranger and Tank said.

"Never underestimate a woman," Ranger said.

"Don't need to tell me twice. I know Bombshell," Vince said, and took a clip of the video, which he then sent as an email attachment to everyone in the office.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Ten minutes after Morelli and Meagan showed up we had Hal and Cal in the office on the sofa. Connie had given us icepacks and we were putting them on shoulders and noses. Lula had seen Meagan and Morelli just before Meagan went for a run. She was meeting Joe here at the Bond's office so she could introduce herself, figuring it would be good if we recognized her on the street as one of the good guys. She'd been pleasantly surprised to see me here.

I felt the tingle on my neck and knew that Ranger had seen the commotion on the camera and was checking on his men. And me too probably.  
"Babe," Ranger said as he strolled into the office.

He put his hand on the back of my neck, and I felt him stiffen, his guard suddenly up. He was staring at Meagan his blank face firmly in place.

"That was the coolest shit I have ever seen!" Lula squeaked, totally missing that Ranger was on full alert. "She's like a Disney Princess or something but she kicked their asses. She totally owned them!"  
Connie had taken her shoes off and was standing behind Meagan who had taken off the hoodie and was wearing a white tank top with her track pants and was showing Connie, in slow motion, the take down she had used on Hal. Lula was putting ointment on Cal's skinned elbow while she pressed an icepack to his nose and Vinnie was staring at Meagan like he was in love. Meagan glanced over and froze, staring at Ranger, her skin paled, and she swallowed hard.

"Sorry boss; we didn't see the FBI on her pant leg. I just saw the hoodie and the piece," Hal said.

"Nice to know that you are looking out for me anyways Halosaurus," I teased, half heartedly, waiting for one of them to do something, other than stare at each other.

Ranger acknowledged Meagan with a small smile and she gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. She had a look of complete disbelief on her face. Tank came in the door and took one look at Meagan and stopped dead. There was complete silence in the Bonds office as everyone realized something was up. Hal looked like he might be thinking about going for his gun again when finally Tink spoke, her usually smooth voice breaking with emotion.

"Thanks for the applause boys," she said.

Tank and Ranger burst into massive smiles. Tank roared out a laugh of pure joy and crossed the room in two strides. He had her off of her feet and in a hug so big I thought he was going to crush her. Then he handed her to Ranger who enveloped her so completely she almost disappeared. Ranger whispered something to her and she kept her arms tight around his neck, nodding, and now openly crying. He put her on her feet and Tank took her off of them again.

Tank's voice was rough and muffled by her hair when he said, "We thought you were dead Tink."


	3. Chapter 3

_**AN: I realized just now, as I was changing the author's notes to say that I was fixing these chapters, that I have been deleting my thanks to everyone who has read, liked and reviewed this story. I'm really grateful for the support! As usual, nothing belongs to me except for Tink, everything else belongs to JE.**_

You could have heard a pin drop in the Bonds Office as Hal, Cal, Lula, Morelli, Connie and I stared open mouthed at the scene in front of us. Ranger and Tank almost never showed emotion, yet here they were. Tank's eyes were suspiciously bright and he wouldn't let her go and Ranger was beaming at her with utter disbelieving joy.

Ranger recovered first, and pulled his phone out of his pocket, "Brown and Santos need to be in conference room two in ten minutes. I don't care what they are doing; tell them to drop whatever it is."

He hung up and turned to Joe, "I know you probably need her today but she's supposed to be dead and two of my men need to put some demons to rest."

"He's here too?" Meagan said with a barely audible whisper.

"Yeah Tink," Tank said gently, and he put her down.

Meagan sat down on the sofa between Hal and Cal with a graceful flop. "I thought he would be in Miami. Last time i checked he was in Miami. His only listed address is Miami... I-I- I'm not ready... I c-can't."

Ranger crouched down in front of her on the sofa and they stared intently into each others eyes. He briefly touched her knee and whispered something I didn't catch and the tension seemed to just completely leave her body. There was history there; a lot of it and I had to fight to suppress my jealousy. I glanced at Tank to see how he reacted to this little exchange, and he was smiling at them like their little interaction had somehow restored balance to his own personal Universe.

"Can you give her a ride to Haywood?" Ranger asked Joe as he stood up.

"Might as well," Joe said as he hauled Meagan to her feet. She was wan, and visibly shaking, with what looked like panic. We left Lula and Connie with a promise to catch up later. I got into the Turbo with Ranger. Tank, Hal and Cal piled into the SUV, Joe and Meagan got into his Jeep and we lead our little parade to Rangeman.

I was dying of a weird combination of dread and curiosity. I had to know the history; I just had to. Ranger clearly loved her, there was absolutely no doubt about that. I don't think I've seen him ever look at anyone like he looked at her. Except for maybe the way he looked at me, but even that wasn't a good comparison. The way he looked at her was different, and I was rattled. Was he in love with her? If he was, that was a problem for me for obvious reasons. She'd looked comfortable when he'd held her, and what was worse, it had looked right. Again a problem for obvious reasons.

"Our relationship isn't physical, Babe, and not for lack of opportunity." My head snapped around to look at him as his words broke into my thoughts, "She's just..." He searched for the words to describe their connection, "It's complicated. Saying that she's like a sister would be a lie. She's closer to me than any member of my family save you, and maybe Julie. We saved each others lives when we were kids and we've been very close ever since. She followed me into the military and three years ago she was supposed to have been killed on a mission. It hit us all really hard and I'm sorry if I hurt you back there; I wasn't thinking. It's not every day someone you love comes back from the dead."

I let out the breath I was holding and he reached over and squeezed my knee. I felt like an idiot and a hypocrite. He hung around for years while I screwed around with Joe and he hugged a pretty girl and I turn into a jealous harpy.

"What about with Tank?" I asked trying to stifle a grin and lighten the moment. I couldn't picture it. I just couldn't. He was huge. She was so dainty and pixie like and...

"He'd crush her," Ranger chuckled. "You know you are pretty cute when you are jealous."

I stuck my tongue out at him and he thought about smiling at me.

We pulled into the lot and we got out of the Turbo as the other cars pulled into the lot. We were followed by Tank, Morelli and Meagan and we all took the elevator to 5 while Hal and Cal went to park the cars. Morelli was holding Meagan's hand in support, she looked terrified, but Tank had a massive arm slung around her shoulders and a smile that could light up Trenton on his face. Before we got out of the elevator, Ranger said something to her, again in another language. I though he'd been speaking Spanish before, but he wasn't. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure he was speaking to her in Latin. Again he touched her, a light touch on the elbow, and I watched her pull herself together, as if borrowing some of Ranger's strength.

We went to conference room two. Bobby was leaning on the table texting someone and laughing softly to himself. He looked up when the door opened. Ranger and I walked in first, "Hey Bomber. What's shakin'?" I shrugged.

I didn't need to say anything because he had clapped eyes on the tiny woman in the track suit. He froze in shock for a second and then he was across the room in two strides and she was enveloped in his arms for a long hug. He inhaled the scent of her hair like it was a drug, his eyes squeezed shut. Unable to speak he released her a little. If she'd looked emotional before with Ranger and Tank it was nothing compared to this. Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks and Bobby wasn't in much better shape. He kissed each cheek and her forehead and crushed her to him again. I briefly worried that she would need x-rays. None of these men were exactly small and these hugs were not gentle. Probably her ribs were going to be sore later. She didn't seem to mind though. She was hugging Bobby back with as much fierce enthusiasm as he was hugging her. Bobby was holding her like he was never ever going to let her go and she was hugging back like it would take an act of God to pry them apart.

"You're supposed to be dead Tink," He finally said into her shoulder, "We were told you were dead. Why didn't you tell us that you were alive?"

"B, I'm so sorry," she said, "I…" she looked at him and he caresses her cheek, as the words stalled in her throat.  
"Let's wait for Santos before she answers that," Tank said. Bobby Tank and Ranger exchanged a look and did their ESP thing. No idea what they were thinking to each other.

"He was out on a call; he's trying to get back but there is a car fire and it's causing traffic issues." Bobby said after he put a tearful Meagan back on her own feet. He was still holding her in his arms as if he was afraid that if he let her go she would disappear.

"It wasn't me." I said holding my hands up in the air. Everyone laughed, including Meagan who had heard all about me from Joe. It managed to break some of the tension in the room. Everyone went to take a seat around the table. Meagan tried to untangle herself from Bobby, but he wasn't having it and he pulled her onto his lap instead. Meagan and Bobby? His girlfriend wasn't going to like that. Not that either of them seemed to mind at the moment. She was cuddled into him like she belonged there.

"Bobby blamed himself for her death. He's never gotten over it," Ranger whispered in my ear, "They were very close, and I think he's afraid she isn't real." His phone buzzed. He read a text and stepped out of the conference room to make a call. When he came back he told us that Les was going to be another 10 minutes.

"What happened Meagan? You can tell Santos later," Ranger said. Bobby gave her a reassuring look so she took a deep breath, well as deep a breath as she could with Bobby's arms wrapped around her like a vice and began.

"Well, what did you hear? I'll fill in the gaps if I can remember them."

"Les and I were watching you through our scopes," Bobby said, "We saw you get made by someone but we couldn't see who, and then two of their militia came upon our position. Les got shot in the back and by the time I had neutralized them you were nowhere to be seen. Les was losing a lot of blood and I had to get him out of there. I radioed for back up and hauled Les to safety. They finally let us look for you a week later but by the time we got into the compound you were long gone. We heard that you had been tortured, gang raped and then executed."

"Well fortunately that last bit was a complete fabrication on their part," She said softly. She gently stroked his cheek. Removing a tear with her thumb. He smiled at her and gave her another squeeze. Damn. This was hard to watch without bursting into tears of my own.

"None of it was your fault, B. I heard what you did for Les, and it was the right thing to do. I wish I could have told you."

"I'm just glad you're back, Tink."

She smiled and took another deep breath, "There was a leak. They knew I was going to be there, alone, and it was no accident that they came upon your nest. Our target's twelve year old daughter heard the conversation about what was planned for me and she got to me before they did. She snuck me into their garage and hid me in the trunk of one of her father's Mercedes. She brought me food and water for what I think was two days but I can't be sure. It may have been longer; hell it felt like longer. She was eventually caught, and punished but not before she got me out of there. I made it to the extraction point and waited around for a few days. Nobody showed.

"By then I was dehydrated and sick. I'd broken my ankle jumping out of the garage window so I was slow moving. It took me a while, but I found a village where they patched me up and I contacted our CO. I had already been classified as KIA by that point and they thought it useful to keep me that way. I wanted to contact you but..." She broke off. She swallowed hard trying to keep her emotions in check. Bobby whispered more reassurances in her ear and she nodded. She worked super secret covert ops. Everyone in the room understood why she couldn't tell them she was alive.

"The bastards," Tank muttered breaking a long silence.

"So then you hooked up with Mossad," Ranger guessed moving them away from the uncomfortable portion of the conversation.

She cocked an eyebrow at him and grinned. He mirrored her expression.

"You saw what I did at the bonds office and decided that did you? I could have picked it up elsewhere Mr. Knowitall." OMG nobody spoke to Ranger like that. Well nobody but me and sometimes Tank. That Ranger took it in stride told me more about her than an hour of lunch had. "But as usual you are right. I was with them for about a year and a half until my contract was almost up but there was an uhh incident and I decided I was done with deserts. Part of the deal I made to get me out of there was that I sign on for another year with a federal agency of my choosing. The whole alphabet fought for me for a while and then I wound up doing what I do best for the FBI. My contract is up in a little over a week and then I get my life back, so to speak."

"Is your name really Meagan Harris?" Joe asked. I thought that was a rather stupid question; like she could tell us if it wasn't? From the looks on their faces Ranger and Tank agreed with me.

"Actually yes," She said, "Everything I told you about myself is true. It was decided that my real bio was common enough before I started working for the Feds, that there was no need to hide it. All it needed was a couple of tweaks." Ranger and Tank smirked and she shot them a mischievous smile, "They figured it was easy this way. My parents are both dead and I don't have any siblings or relatives of any kind. These boys here are my family." She gave Bobby an affectionate squeeze.

"Why do they keep calling you, Tink?" I asked.

"Can I borrow that pencil in front of you?" She asked pointing at a pen cup on the table. I rolled pencil too her and she deftly twisted her hair back and stabbed it with the pencil to keep it in place. The action was practiced, my guess was this was something she has done a million times. Aside from the black eyes she was a dead ringer for Tinker Bell. Well, if Tinker Bell wasn't animated, was more beautiful, had a normal sized head, and was a trained assassin who could kill you with a paper clip that is. With her soft waves restrained she looked harder somehow. Scary even. Bobby frowned and pulled the pencil out of her hair again almost immediately. With her hair back she looked predatory but as soon as her hair fell back down she looked playful again; her expression hadn't changed in the slightest. It was remarkable.

"Whenever we had to go on a mission where Tink would have to go in the field solo or do something uhh less than safe?" Tank paused and there were some chuckles, Tink made an innocent who me? face, "she would say, 'Hey I'll be fine, just remember that if something happens to me you just have to clap and say, 'I believe in fairies' and I'll be alright.' We all clapped at you memorial Tink. I guess it worked."

"Well not everyone clapped," Ranger reminded him he was about to elaborate but Santos chose that moment to walk through the door.

"What's the rush boss?" He froze and a myriad of emotions crossed his face; Shock, relief, happiness, disbelief, pain, anger and complete and total love. All of them registered in a nanosecond just before his blank face slammed into place. The Rangeman reflex when under extreme emotional distress.

"Meagan," He choked almost inaudibly. He took a step towards her but instead of getting to pick her up like the others had she launched herself off of Bobby's lap, onto the conference table, ran the length of the table and jumped on Lester wrapping her legs around his waist, clinging on for dear life. He held her face in his hands and they started talking over each other, "I knew you weren't dead and they wouldn't listen. I told them I would know. I knew you would be back. There's been no one."

"They wouldn't let me call you. I wanted to call you so bad. They wouldn't let me. I tried to send you a message through an aide so you would know. I didn't want to hurt you, I didn't have a choice, and I'm so sorry Baby…" She gushed. He shook his head blocking out her words.

"It doesn't matter," he said and he began kissing every inch of her face as tears streamed down her cheeks once more. If Bobby had looked like he was trying to reassure himself that she was real, Les looked like he'd found a priceless treasure that he needed to memorize in case someone tried to take it away again. You could tell that the minute they saw each other that everyone else in the room had ceased to exist. You'd have had to have a heart of stone not to be moved by their reunion. He stared into her eyes, "God I've missed you." He said and finally their lips met and he carried her out of the conference room without another word. Ranger picked up his cell phone and called the control room.

"Santos is offline for the next 48 hours," he told them he disconnected and looked at Joe, "Thanks for calling the FBI in. We owe you one."

"What is it with your gene pool?" Joe asked without malice, "I'm a nice guy, not hard to look at, I have a good job too, but somehow it seems that the women I am attracted to seem to fall helplessly in love with you guys. Is there some kind of pheromone? I mean if there is you should bottle it..." he broke off chuckling. "I'll get Mooch to help bring her car around; I hope the pink doesn't burn out your cameras. Tell her I'll pick her up in a couple of days." He stood up and walked out of the room.

Once he was gone, Ranger, Bobby and Tank relaxed. Joe was a good guy but he didn't have clearance and they couldn't talk freely. I didn't have clearance either but I had the benefit of being married to Ranger and I was an employee of sorts to the company.

"That mission was fucked from the beginning," Tank said. "There was nobody at the extraction point because they wouldn't send anyone. They said it was too late, so there was no point in risking lives to retrieve a black ops operative who knew the risks going in. They were willing to take the terrorists word for it. Because hey, you know, they never lie. The only reason we went into the compound was because Ranger and Santos threatened the CO with bodily harm if we didn't go back for her." That might have been the most words that I have ever heard come out of Tank in one go.

"I heard the chatter," Bobby said, "I'll spare Steph the details but they were very graphic when they described the death of a petite blonde. We assumed that it was Tink; in hindsight I really hope that it wasn't the daughter."

"If anyone. Maybe they just wanted us to think she was dead so we would call off the search so they could be the ones to find her," Tank said, "I always wondered how we got that Intel for the next op. Looks like the Pixie did her job. As usual."

"Do you think that they wanted her death faked, that it was the point of the mission and she knew that going in?" I asked. Ranger shook his head no. He motioned for me to sit on his lap. I noticed that Ranger wanted contact with me whenever he needed to think through something that was troubling him. I think I helped centre him. Either that or he was moved by Lester and Meagan's reunion and thinking about what they had gone through. It must have been awful. I couldn't even imagine. Either way I obliged. He held me extra hard for a second and I knew it was the latter.

"I think someone wanted her dead," Bobby said gravely. Then he shook his head and chuckled softly, "Mossad? Like she needed to be more scary. I bet that wasn't the General's idea; I bet $20 she volunteered."

"She took out Hal and Cal in about 30 seconds," I said enthusiastically "It was very cool. Cal might have a broken nose." It wasn't so much that she broke his nose that was awesome; it was that he's got at least a foot and a hundred fifty pounds on her and she tossed him like he was dirty laundry.  
Ranger pulled up the feed from the bonds office parking lot on the big screen.

Bobby watched and started laughing. "Damn do you think it's possible she's quicker? I'd love to see her sparring with you again."

"I think she's busy sparring with Santos at the moment. Might want to give her a couple of days." Ranger deadpanned and I elbowed him. He smiled.  
"I know that you are Batman and a superhero and all that but could you have taken her down?" I asked.

"Sure," Ranger said.

"How?"

"Taser," all three of them said at the same time.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"So is Meagan her real name?" I asked Ranger later while we were eating dinner on seven. He grinned.

"Babe." he teased but then he said, "Yes it is."

"She's Tink the fighting fairy." I giggled.

"Actually she's only Tink to my men. She's The Pixie to almost everyone else. She's lethal in hand to hand because she had to be. She has a giant target painted on her because she looks vulnerable. She had to learn to kick ass. But that's not what her specialty is. I guess you would classify her as PSYOPS but that's pretty broad."

"She good at it?"

"The best. Do you think it was an accident that Eddie was with Joe when you met her in the restaurant?"

"She couldn't have known that I was going to Pino's that day," I said, "I didn't even know I was going until I pulled into the lot.

"You are a creature of habit Babe; you go there for a sub every Thursday."

"Why would she put herself in my way? To find you?"

"If she was trying to find me she would have shown up in the lobby downstairs. She has practically unlimited resources. The only reason she thought Lester and Bobby were in Miami is because that's where their addresses are listed, and she had to keep her distance from them. No, she wanted to meet you because she's working with Joe on a task force. She needed his head in the game and not depressed about an ex. Eddie is a mutual friend, he worked as a buffer and you were able to have a pleasant lunch. Morelli was perfectly relaxed in this room. Have you ever seen him recover from a blow to his ego so quickly? For that matter, have you ever seen him relaxed around me period? Thank Tink for that."

"Huh," I sat for a few minutes, "So Lester and Tink huh?"

"Yup."

"For a guy who professes that he knew the love of his life was alive he certainly was a player," I joked. Ranger shook his head.

"He shoots his mouth off, says a lot of inappropriate things and gets indecent on the dance floor but he never brings anyone home. Don't take this the wrong way but that's one of the reasons why he flirts so much with you, Babe. You are safe, because he knows you won't get invested. With you he gets to look like he's a player but he doesn't have to fight you off or hurt your feelings at the end of the night."

"You're joking," I couldn't imagine Santos celibate for three hours let alone three years. Yet what Ranger was saying made sense because now that I thought about it I realized he was always one of the first ones back from the clubs. Still this was Testosterone central. I'd been around after some of their more exciting takedowns and all of them looked for the nearest warm bed and willing body to lose themselves in. I can't imagine any of them waiting three years.

"Babe, I waited that long for you."

"Well we did have a couple of moments and we at least got to see each other."

Ranger grinned, "We'll always have the alley."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"I tried to send you a message. Did you get it?" Meagan asked. She was wearing a Rangeman t-shirt and was sitting cross legged on Santos' stomach looking very much like Tinker bell. He had always loved it; how tiny she was compared to him but she could hold her own against anyone. Feminine, lethal, and sometimes terrifying, yet the most loving person he had ever met.

"Your bracelet," he said, "I remember putting it on your wrist before you left on that mission." He held up his arm and pulled off a leather cuff that he had worn for three years. He pulled out stitching on the inside of the cuff and exposed a charm bracelet stitched into a recess in the leather. He would have just worn the bracelet and none of the guys would have ribbed him over it, but it was too small for him. He'd had it sewn on the inside of the band instead so he could wear it always. "It was in your personal effects."

He fastened her bracelet around her wrist. The charms were ones he had bought after each mission they had been on together. Each one a different bell. Not in deference to her name but because she moved silently and had scared a CO, (one they referred to as General Asswipe behind his back) half to death one day.

He had seriously ordered her to wear a bell when she wasn't in the field. She'd shown up with Ranger, who moved just as noiselessly, but the CO, who didn't know that she could fuck him up just as badly as Ranger could, chose to mask his embarrassment by yelling at the one he believed the lesser threat. She'd let the comment roll off her back, used to being underestimated, Lester hadn't. He couldn't wait for her to make a fool out of him.

Ranger's orders were to choose a member of his team to go in with him. Asswipe assumed it would be Tank or Lester thinking the tiny little slip of a woman was decorative. He understood that keeping a woman handy was important for physical release after a rough mission. He admired Ranger's foresight in having someone on hand for his men. In short he thought she was nothing more than an adventurous whore. Given how she looked he assumed an expensive one.

When the mission was completed and the entire terrorist cell had been taken out without a single shot fired, Tank and Lester went to wait with the General for the helo bringing Ranger and Tink back. The General saw the boys and assumed Ranger had opted to solo the mission. When the helicopter landed and Ranger hopped out and turned to catch Tink as she followed him of the chopper the General had been surprised. When, during the debriefing it turned out that her body count was as high as Ranger's and the Secretary of Defence had asked her about the intel she'd gathered and not Ranger he'd been embarrassed and angry. Lester had chosen the end of that briefing to give her the bracelet. The SecDef heard about the order for the bell and he'd been amused.

She wore it for luck after that; usually under a black wrist band so she didn't have to worry about it making a sound or giving off a reflection. Now though she shook her wrist listening to a pleasant tinkling sound. She didn't think she would have wanted to have worn it without him there, it's why she had chosen it to be her message to him.

"I hoped that you would know it was from me. I had an aide slip it into the box. I just couldn't disappear without a trace and not tell you that I was alive. I needed you to know I was alive."

"So where did they send you? How did you end up working with the Cop?" Lester flipped her onto her back and smiled as he listened to her adventures. She didn't edit top secret stuff with him, she knew he had the security clearance and would keep it to himself. She had followed his career so she knew what he had been up to professionally. So he told her about his personal life. Her's was virtually nonexistent. He told her about working for Ranger and about their family. How his Abuela Rosa refused to let them talk about Meagan in the past tense, saying that if her grandson said she was alive, then she was. How she wouldn't let his family set him up on dates because it was just a matter of time before Meagan was back. That poor Ranger had been pressured at every family meal as the only single male until he had produced Stephanie. She laughed. It wasn't until their caresses started to become heated again and he peeled off the t-shirt that he discovered her scars.

She was straddling him when his hand skated over the damaged skin of her lower back. He stilled and gently lifted her off of him and guided her onto her stomach. He reached for the side table and turned on the lamp. He stayed silent, his expression not blank but still unreadable. Meagan forced her breathing to remain even as she waited for him to react. He traced the large jagged scar up her back like he was following a road on a map. He then traced each of the smaller scars. Counting them. There were 17 in all. Some more vicious looking than the others.  
"Cool scars," he said evenly, "IED?" She nodded, not trusting her voice, as his was carefully neutral, "Is this why deserts got old for you?" She nodded, "Were you alone?" Another nod, "How close was it?"

"Too close." she whispered. He placed healing kisses on each one of the scars, following the order he'd used to count them.

He ran his fingers lightly down her spine trailing kisses behind. He caressed her hip and rolled her onto her back. His lips lightly touched hers, "I'm just happy you made it home." The first time they'd made love it had been hasty and explosive, two lovers reunited after too long apart. They had barely been aware that they had made it to Lester's studio apartment on four. They were too caught up in one another. It was how he hadn't noticed the scars. This time was a memorization. Her body had changed in three years, she was thinner than she had been, she had new scars and he had to learn it all over again as he welcomed her home. He knew she was keeping something from him but it didn't matter at that moment. He needed her to remember how much he loved her and this was how he was going to show her. She needed to know that he didn't care about the scars that marred her once perfect skin, she needed to know he wasn't angry with her for faking her death or for the years of pain. He was still hers if she'd have him.

"I thought you were in Miami." She said afterwards. He was lying on his stomach and she was gently tracing the scar below his shoulder where he had been shot. A horrible reminder of how very nearly she had lost him. She kissed his scar thankful its presence meant he was still alive, "The last time I checked, that's where you were. My plan was to finish my last two weeks under contract and then drive down there so I could show up on your doorstep. I knew Ranger was here, I'd seen Tank but I had no idea that you and Bobby were here."

"Well Gorgeous we were, and if we weren't, Ranger would have had us on a plane here the minute he saw you."

"I'm so sorry," She cuddled next to him on her side and caressed his face, "I've picked up the phone to call you every day. Every day I hung it back up again. The consequences were too high if I did. I helped where I could though. I made sure the right people were on the Scrog case. On a couple of your sniper missions I was the one who provided the intel. I stepped in twice when that asshole tried to send Ranger on suicide missions that were actual suicide missions and convinced the joint chiefs that my plan was better."

"You were in Afghanistan last fall weren't you?" He asked and she grinned, "I knew that was you! That op had you written all over it. In fact I was so sure you were involved I bought you a bell." he found the one in question, on her wrist and kissed it, "Then I thought I saw you in the street market."

"You did. I took a risk because I needed to touch you and I needed to smell you. You were so close I couldn't resist. I got in so much shit for it too."

"You got that close?" He was horrified that he had missed that opportunity to touch her in return. Then he laughed,"I caught a glimpse of blonde hair, saw your walk and thought, 'There's no way that's Meagan.' And you got close enough to touch me? Where?"

"Abs and ass. You have a perfect ass. I kissed your shoulder too. Right here." She kissed the shoulder in question.

"Jesus don't tell Ranger. I'd get my perfect ass handed to me for letting someone get that close without me noticing." He brushed her hair off her face and stared at her laughing mouth.

"Just tell him that I was the one that planted the co-ordinates, ones he wasn't supposed to have by the way, on him last May and you'll be fine. I put them in his back pocket while he was in the airport. His ass isn't bad either." They laughed and made love again and then they talked some more. Her cover was blown and it wasn't her fault but unless she played her cards right there was every chance they would send her back to DC or god knows where until her contract was out. The two of them weren't going to waste precious time with sleeping.

When he told her about Ranger and Stephanie she laughed some more. "You know why it took them so long to get together don't you?"

He shook his head.

"It's your fault. You're chickens. All of you. He just needed someone to smack him upside the head and tell him to get his head out of his ass. Where were your brother and Hector?"

"Hiding. Ranger is a dick when he isn't getting laid regularly."

"Wimps," she teased then groaned and buried her head in the pillow, "Why did I stay away for so long again? If I'd just said fuck it and... Nevermind... All I'm saying is that I'm responsible for a lot of heart ache and..." He kissed her to put a stop to her self flagellation.

"I know you had a damn good reason," he said gently and then he smiled the smile that usually preceded him acting like an ass, "I mean I wouldn't have complained if you had shown up a little earlier. I was the one really suffering. At least they were all getting laid. I was busy pretending to be a player so everyone would stop telling me to move on, meanwhile I was going home alone every night, and getting carpul tunnel. I'll have you know that for someone like me years without action can be fatal and to survive, I had to amass this giant porn collection." she smacked him playfully on his bare chest, he trapped her hand. "We are going to have to talk about who set you up, but not today; today I have other ideas." He kissed her like he meant it and she had a pretty good idea what his plans were.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I play a little with Ranger's past in this chapter. I've changed a few things to fit his history with Tink. As always I don't own anything. Still just cleaning things up!**

"What's going on?" I asked Hal, who was on monitor duty a couple of days after the big reunion. There was a group of men glued to a screen showing the gym.  
"The Boss and Tank are sparring with Tink," Santos said behind me, "Come on; let's go get ring side seats." He handed me a coffee, and draped an arm around my shoulders, and steered me out of the room.

"You aren't afraid of her getting trampled?" I asked as we headed towards the elevator.

"Nah, they used to workout like this all the time. She's even faster and stronger now than she was then, so it should be fun to watch."

We got out of the elevator at the gym level, and walked in to the sound of heavy hits being landed in rapid succession. I looked over as Meagan, clad in a pair of tiny black dance shorts, and a tank top, connected kicked Tank hard, in the kidneys. I winced on his behalf as Les and I sat on one of the treadmills to watch. It didn't take long to realize that it wasn't really sparring, as it was a lesson. Meagan would demonstrate a combination of moves on one of them, and then show them the defensive maneuver as they came back at her with the attack.

Both men were skilled in hand to hand combat but evidently she had learned a few things and they were interested. There was very little verbal communication, but the lesson was none the less, very informative. After this went on for about twenty minutes, Lester got bored.

"Aww come on! Bossman's been wiping the floor with us, it's time he went down!" Santos complained after a while, "Give the boys upstairs a show, baby; Kick his ass!"

Ranger and Meagan grinned and she raised an eyebrow in challenge. They'd already been going at it for about an hour and they were both coated in sweat.

"You are that sure she's going to win?" Ranger asked as Tank backed off the mats.

"Hell yeah," Lester said, "She's nice and limber this morning. You're going down Primo."

Bobby walked in with his med kit and joined us on our makeshift bleachers. "Just in case." He winked.

"Bring it tough guy," she teased.

"Given what I saw at the Bonds office I'm giving it even odds," Tank said, "I forgot how quick she was, I'll bet Ranger has too. It could get a little rough, are you prepared for that, man?"

"It's hot," Lester said, waving him off. Ranger wasn't wearing a shirt so I agreed with him. I rolled my eyes anyway. Lester was smiling as he took a sip of water, and it occurred to me, that I don't think I'd ever seen him looking that happy. Kind of strange since his cousin was about to kick the shit out of his girlfriend.

"Looks like you got a little soft Carlos," She teased and there was a collective intake of breath. There wasn't a scrap of fat on his body and we all knew it. Her smirk was a challenge and he raised an eyebrow.

"And you've gotten slow." he replied.

And then she dropped and took his legs out from under him and it was on. The sparring was like watching Ranger spar with pretty much anyone else, the only difference being that she was actually landing as many hits as he was. Neither one was slowing down, and for me, that's what was impressive. They were sweaty, her skin was flushed, but neither of them were breathing too hard.

"When does it end?" I asked and winced as Tink took a kick to the ribs that looked like it hurt and she retaliated by tossing Ranger, and there was momentary silence in the gym, aside from a soft chuckle from Ranger. Nobody tossed Ranger. Not even Tank.

"Oh, they're just getting warmed up, Beautiful," Lester said, "Tank'll stop it, if it gets out of hand."

"If they'll listen to me," Tank said.

Ranger got to his feet and shook his head with a grin. He said something to her in what sounded like German and she laughed. "You're telegraphing everything, Hermano, do you plan to stop doing that any time soon. Don't tell me I need to teach you to fight again."

"Stop holding back, and I'll stop going easy on you," Ranger said.

"Bring it," she said. The teasing looks dropped and it was like someone hit the fast forward button.  
It was almost graceful, watching them fight, their moves looked choreographed, and very few hits landed, as they blocked or dodged hits. Ranger was definitely stronger, and a look around the room proved that he wasn't pulling his punches. She used her small size to best advantage, and made it difficult for him to aim at the small, fast target. They were both smart, and their tactics changed quickly, the other adapting quickly to the change in technique, both switching rapidly between offensive and defensive, their countermoves, perfectly timed like we were watching a violent dance.

Most of the staff had found their way down to the gym to watch this display and they were fascinated, by what they were watching. It turned out that Ranger did in fact have an equal. A 5' tall blonde woman who looked like a strong breeze would knock her over. The stamina was impressive too, neither one of them looked like they were remotely interested in slowing down, if anything, the longer the sparring went on, the quicker they were. Lester, Tank and Bobby, were all looking on with satisfaction, periodically saying things like.

"Shit, I haven't seen him use that move since that time in Uruguay." Or, "Shit remember the time she did that to what's his nuts, when we were in Russia, I hadn't laughed so hard since…" "Bali!"

After about half an hour, of this Lester checked his watch and nudged Tank.

"Time! You've got a meeting in twenty Ric," Tank called and they both stopped mid-blow a mere centimetre from making contact and dropped into a relaxed posture.

If the sparring hadn't been impressive what happened next, was. Bobby and Lester each lobbed a bottle of water at them and they snagged it out of the air left handed, twisted the top off and chugged it back. The act itself wasn't what was impressive, it was that it was identical. Their body movements, their facial expression, even their breathing were all perfectly in synch. They finished their water at the same time and tossed it in a recycle bin. Both making the shot, then Ranger pulled her into a one armed hug breaking them out of their almost eerie connection. She returned the side squeeze and they broke their contact. That's when it hit me. I knew why I couldn't help but like her, and who she reminded me of. She was the female Ranger.

He was uber male, lethal, a bit scary. She couldn't have been more feminine but after watching them fight I realized, just as lethal, just as scary. Ranger's stoicism threw people off balance, made you wonder what he was thinking, made it so he could control a room with no effort. Tink had the same command presence as he did, and could silence someone with a slight quirk of an eyebrow. She just used flirtation to disarm people the way he used his blank face.

Lester snagged Meagan around the middle and dragged her to him. He gave her playful kiss before she slapped his chest and pushed away from him giving him a cheeky grin. She stood on her toes and whispered something in his ear and a slow smile spread across his face before he threw his head back and laughed. He still didn't look like he wanted to release her just yet. He was lightly hanging on to her hips and she turned around without forcing him to break contact.

"Well boys and girl," she said, "It's been a slice but I have to go to work and break the news to the Director that I won't be renewing my contract and that you guys blew my cover."

"You're coming to work here right?" Tank asked hopefully, as Bobby took Ranger back to his office.

"Yeah, if you'll still have me?" she made her eyes look all big and pleading, but the accompanying pout was clearly teasing.

"Tink, sweetheart, if I have to drag you back here and lock you in an office, I will," Tank said.

"Paperwork getting to be too much of a pain in the ass, Big Guy?"

"I hate it; I really do," he said.

"Uh-huh. You're lucky I find monotony relaxing." she turned to me, "I'm going to use you for the first little while to help me get to know the men if that's okay? I know some of them from the Army and of course I know anyone related to Carlos and Les, the rest?" She did a palms up, "my knowledge is limited."

"Sure, no problem," I said.

After that Bobby took her away to check her out after the sparring. Ranger told me later that they got carried away every now and then, and required medical attention. Bobby had been less than impressed each time, and insisted on giving them each a once over after every time they sparred together. I watched Bobby lift the back of her shirt and frowned. She whispered to him, over her shoulder, and he nodded before pulling the top back in place. Once declared sound she jogged out of the gym towards the stairs, finger waving over her shoulder as she went. Lester's eyes never left her body.

"Does she ever run out of energy? You'd never know that she was just extremely active for like two hours," I said. He gave himself a shake to snap himself out of his little happy trance.

"She didn't sleep much last night either," Santos winked. I groaned.

"TMI buddy. TMI." I said he just laughed.

"Remember that one mission?" Tank asked, "She went four days without actually going to bed. She would just sit down in a chair and catnap for ten minutes and then she was good as new. It was like a system reboot or something."

"Yeah, but then she slept for three days straight and scared the hell out of me. I thought she was sick, because I couldn't wake her up." Santos said.

"I think she survived on strong tea and straight sugar for that mission, but she found you you and Ric and got you out alive," Bobby said. Santos shuddered at the memory. I knew they couldn't tell me more than that or they would have. As much as I really wanted to know the rest of that story but I let it go.

RSRSRSRSRS

"Princess, you're leaving me to go work for Manoso?" Joe whined as Meagan sat down at her desk.

"Quit your bitching," she said affectionately, "I had to call in a dozen favours, and conduct some serious negotiations just to be able to ride the rest of my contract out in Trenton. I'm being made official liaison, between the FBI and Rangeman, until the end of this case. I still have lead, and we'll be working largely out of the Haywood facility. Which is good, because they have better everything there, and their computers don't still operate on Windows 95."

"In fairness, it's only the one computer," Joe said with a laugh, "All of our other computers are under a decade old."

"Dude, if I had access to my former bank account, TPD would be getting a huge donation, just because this place still has some computers using dial up modems."

"You loaded?" Joe asked.

"Sorta, before I died anyway."

"So, you and Santos?"

She beamed at Joe, and couldn't have looked more beautiful if she tried, "I fucking adore him. I've known his family for years; his brother, Julio, Ranger, Hector and I were really close when we were younger. Julio's older and took it upon himself to play big brother to the three of us while we were in college. I spent a ton of time in the Santos residence, holidays and stuff, but never managed to be there at the same time as Lester. I didn't meet him until after I finished my second Ph'd, and we were partnered up on a mission, what? Christ that's seven or eight years ago."

"That math doesn't work there sweetheart," Joe said, "You're only twenty-nine."

"The things you don't know about me, could fill several file boxes Morelli," she said with a wink, "Anyway, Lester and I hit it off instantly, and I've been his ever since. It was a bit tricky at times because we were in the same unit, and I outrank him, but we made it work."

"So your street contacts are good because of your relationship with Manoso?" Joe asked.

"Not exactly," she hedged, "Actually, it's sort of need to know."

"Well are you getting anything from these contacts?" Joe asked.

She stretched out and put her feet on the desk, reclining her chair, and laced her fingers behind her head. He'd been somewhat dubious about her so called street rep, right up until she took him to New York, and parked her car on a street in Spanish Harlem. She leaned up against her car her badge clearly visible on her hip, as she picked at her manicure. After about ten minutes of this, Joe was about to say something when they were surrounded by half a dozen cars, loaded with men wearing Prince colours.

A man, who Joe recognized from his organized crime briefings, as being an Inca for the Spanish Princes, got out of an escalade and walked up to Meagan, and flicked the badge on her hip, an amused look on his face. "You a Feeb now, Baby Girl?"

"This week," she said with a grin, "I need some intel, what can you tell me about the Slayers?"

"Not much right now, haven't been around since some bitch took 'em out with an uzi and a school bus."

"I hear Big D is working to revive his East Coast trade. My details are sketchy though, if I've not been overseas, blowing shit up, I've been locked in a room in DC. I thought when the Slayers went down, you guys moved in to their territory."

"Nah, jefe, wasn't interested in it. Not a strategically good local for our people, we'd have been sandwiched in between two rivals."

"Yeah bad plan, that," she said, "Gonna need the lay of the land in Trenton, who's in charge?"

"Ralphe," he said, "Tell me what you need, and I'll get him to hit you back with what we can dig up."

"Any chance you can keep our conversation from Jefe, just for a couple of weeks?" she asked.

"No chance, Baby Girl. He was the one who called me to make sure you real, and not some ghost. He wants you to call him, because he wants to know what the fuck is going on."

"Tell him, it's complicated, and I'll drop by in a couple of weeks when I get some shit untangled."

"You in trouble Baby Girl?"

"I'll let you know," she'd said. At the time Joe hadn't understood this line of questioning, he got it now of course. The next day she got a list of names, and she'd been going out and digging up what she could from sources at every level. Some of the men, would see her, and she'd be hugged like she was a long lost little sister. Others treated her with the deference of royalty. She wouldn't tell him why they treated her like this, she said it was classified, each time. One time, and one time only, did she tell Joe to wait in the car. The man she spoke to had flown in from Miami, and they spent an hour talking, when she finished, he put her in the car and said, "You say the word Baby Girl, you don't have to do this shit on your own anymore."

"I'll call if I need you," she said. It was obviously not case related, and there was visible sadness on her face, as she pulled out of the lot. She refused to talk about it, beyond saying, "It's a personal matter, and he's an old friend."

These little excursions, had taken weeks, but her phone had been ringing for days now, as her little feelers started paying off.

"Okay from the beginning," she said, "LA branch of the Slayers wants to reestablish itself on the East Coast, because they are facing a little too much scrutiny out West right now, and it's been detrimental to distribution, and cutting into their bottom line. Obviously this is a bad thing. However, the Slayers don't have much clout here at the moment, because it's shit for street cred, to have the majority of your crew taken out by a girl, and a cross dresser driving a school bus. To fix that, they are going to have to take out Sally and Stephanie. The trouble for them, now, is that the few remaining Slayers, all know now that Stephanie is married to Ranger, and they are scared shitless of him.

This has led to a rise in out of town recruitment. They are going for the young and impressionable, and the batshit crazy, and Ranger's rep, isn't going to be enough anymore, unless he puts on his own display of illegal awesomeness. Clearly not an option, since we're involved so we have to think of different strategies.

We've got Sweet in a Safe House in Philadelphia but he's making noises about the little dudes needing him and he's getting antsy. Steph was okay, as long as she took her protection semi seriously, and stayed away from Stark Street, which she was doing, but we're going to have to rethink that as well."

"What's changed?"

"What's new and worrying is that my contacts have informed me that Big D, is getting a little frustrated with the lack of progress so he's hired some pros and I have a list of names. It's not good." She handed him the list.

"Shit. They're bringing in all of the big guns from out West. That's not good." Joe said as he reached for the ever present bottle of Maalox on his desk.

"You know you can get a prescription that will help with the reflux," She commented as he took a swig.

"When I have time to go to a doctor, I'll get one. In the meantime I'm thinking of using this in my coffee instead of creamer."

"Eat less grease, and lay off the coffee, buddy; you aren't doing yourself any favours."

"Bite me," he said, "Give me your assessment, of these assholes."

"We have two problems. One: these guys are smart and fucking crazy. They don't fit your usual banger profile, and unfortunately, my knowledge of the West coast muscle is somewhat limited. I need as much intel on each of them as I can get, not just jobs they have done but also the impressions of the boys on the street. Most bangers aren't that bright but they have survival instincts, they should be able to tell us which of these guys is the biggest threat. So, you know, shake down who you need to. I'll get Hector and Ranger to do the same."

"What about your people?"

"Keeping other gangs from joining in on the hunt. Last thing we need are for the Slayers to join forces with the Kings for profit. We'd be fucked if they did, which is why it's a good thing the Princes owe me a few favours, they should be able to discourage any alliances, Big D might try to make." The Princes were easily the largest Latin gang in the country, they had a lot of clout on the streets, and not many people liked fucking with them.

"The next problem is that we are going to have to co-ordinate with LAPD because they will have a lot of the intel I need. Also we don't cut the head off of the snake only to have it grow back again. If we play our cards right we might be able to put an end to the Slayers, nationwide; not that it makes much difference, in the long run. Someone else will just take over their turf, but hey the media will like it." Joe grunted in agreement.

"Steph seems to be taking the news that the Slayers are gunning for her, well. Given what happened to her last time they had a contract out on her, I'm surprised she's not curled up in the corner trying to find her happy place." Meagan said as she reached for her Tinker Bell cup, which made so much more sense now.

Joe shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "She doesn't actually know about the threat yet."

"You haven't told her?" she said bemused, "I can't believe with the threat level this high that Ranger hasn't yet either. I'm surprised he hasn't doubled her body guards and armed her to the teeth."

"Well like you said, his name has been protecting her so we figured that it was best if she wasn't afraid. She tends to get proactive and then all hell breaks loose. She's fine with her protection and seems to look at it as the price for being married to a paranoid..."  
"Fuck you haven't given him the intel I've been gathering either? Are you a fucking idiot?! He doesn't have the contacts I have with Hector working for me on another matter. You told me you'd keep him apprised of everything."

"Listen this is a police matter. He agreed that there was no need to worry Steph with this until we had names, and I told him about the rise in recruitment. He's been sending her on service calls and keeping her off of the street."

"Two days ago she agreed to be Lula's back up! No way he agrees to that with the threat this high unless you've been keeping shit from him. What is it with you men? Honestly. Lives are at stake and you are hauling out the measuring tape? You lost. Deal with it for fucks sake. You are both good at what you do. You should be working together." She stood up, and walked around their adjoining desks, and cuffed him in the back of the head, "Come with me."

There was no point in arguing with her further, not yet. The cloud of pissed mist that hung around her was so thick that the other officers were giving her a wide berth as she stormed out of TPD. He followed her to her car and she threw her heels in the back upon getting in and slid on a pair of flats. She let him get in and get the doors closed before she squealed the tires pulling out of the lot. Meagan was an aggressive driver at the best of times. Pissed off? It was a good thing he had insisted she had a kojak because it was safer if people just got the fuck out of her way. He chose to switch it on for that reason and her foot depressed further on the gas, as she changed gears with a smooth aggressiveness. She threw the car into a space at her hotel and got out.

When they got to her room she took her key fob and pressed a button.  
"Your cell phone won't work in here; I've activated a device that blocks radio transmissions," she grumbled.

"You are a little paranoid too did you know that?"

"Look in the flowers on the table and in the vent above the door. Those bugs are new since I swept the place last time. Please, tell me again how paranoid I am?" Sure enough there was a bug in the flowers and a camera in the vent.

"Jesus Princess, who are you?"

"Someone with enemies in high places, the only good news is that I also have friends in those same high places. I'm not paranoid Joe, I'm walking a tightrope, trying to keep the people I love from getting killed. Now sit the fuck down it's time of a little lesson, on why you need to stop being a fucking dick head, and should swallow your fucking pride."

Joe stood mutinously, before she said, "Would you like a demonstration of what happens when the government decides to weaponize a genius? Because I can fucking show you."

She wasn't fucking around, and Joe sat on the sofa.

She paced a couple of times and then she sighed, "You seem to be under the impression that Ranger is something he's not."

"I think he's got questionable morals and thinks he's above he law and the bastard stole my girlfriend. I'm not about to become his best drinking buddy." She quirked her lips at that.

"Here's a little history lesson, to help you with your perspective. I met Ranger when he was in juvie; he was 14 and I was 12. My parents had just died in a car accident that I blamed myself for, and I was self destructive, his aunt Ella thought that by taking me to Ranger she could do a sort of scared straight thing on me. It didn't work out quite as well as she had hoped. Instead he put me in touch with Lester's older brother Julio and told him to introduce me to Hector."

"Why?" Joe's brow furrowed.

"Two reasons," she held up two fingers, "Carlos was in trouble on the inside. He had a six month sentence and he probably wasn't going to make it through two and I was in trouble on the outside and I needed protection. I was an early blooming 12 year old soon to be high school senior with no parents. My parents decided, in their infinite wisdom that since I was smart, and rich, they weren't going to appoint a guardian. The court was inclined to agree with them, especially since I had staff to take care of me. My inheritance was put in a trust, and my bills were handled by court appointed lawyers. It seemed an ideal solution, except that it left me vulnerable, and there'd already been one thwarted sexual assault attempt in my Junior year, that left me with a concussion and a broken arm.

"Wait you were a 12 year old senior?!"

"And Ranger was 14 and finishing his GED in Juvie," she said with a shrug, "We both started University ridiculously young. But to make an already long story short, Hector and I got the trouble off his back while he was on the inside, and it was the start of Ranger's badass rep. When he got out, I moved in with him and his grandmother for the summer and Julio, Hector, Ranger and I became inseparable. Then Julio went back to Med school, Hector went to night school and I went back to high school and he was looking after his grandmother and applying to universities.  
I was in a bad place, hadn't really dealt with my parent's death yet, I was scared, lonely and an outcast. I didn't sleep well, the only time I was happy was around my boys or when I was dancing."

"The dancing doesn't surprise me at all." Joe said. He'd always thought she moved like a dancer.

"Yes well, I was assaulted again, this time was worse, I wasn't raped thank god but it was close. I went home, waited for Carlos's daily phone call and then let my staff go for the night and decided to become a sad statistic. Carlos had heard something wrong in my voice and called Julio, who was was physically closer and asked him to check on me. Julio drove like a bat out of hell to get to me and stopped me before I could hurt myself. Julio, Hector and Carlos fixed me. But Carlos and I were very close. We understood each other. When he turned 18 he left and joined the Army. He's smart, obviously, skilled and soon became a legend. They started calling him Ranger while he was in the Rangers. He was kind of the epitome of everything they look for in a soldier.

I waited two years, used my PhD Research to get the attention of people in high places. Which is considerably easier when your Godfather is the Director of the FBI. He showed my research to two Generals who recruited me to work for them. I agreed under the condition that I get all the training Ranger had. They agreed against their better judgement and I joined the Army. They kept us apart for a couple of years where we both earned our own reps and then we became a team.

We would get dropped in these places, and Tank, Ranger and I would divide duties. I was in charge of intelligence gathering, Ranger was personally and logistics, and Tank was our chief strategist. He's a genius when it comes to finding weaknesses in any facility. Between the three of us we could get in anywhere, and do anything we were asked to do. I mean anything. Ranger and I sped through the ranks so fast it made our head spin, and the only reason Tank didn't is because he spent half his time back at HQ directing our movements, and coming up with back up strategies, for when hell inevitably broke loose. We did this for about two years, maybe, before Lester and Bobby joined our little unit. Lester is a PSYOPs expert and a fucking gifted sniper. Bobby, was our medic, and Lester's partner."

"It's a nice history lesson that I'm grateful for but why are we here exactly?"

"Just, let me finish." She held up a weary hand, "About a year before I died, Ranger and Lester were taken by some enemies I'd made on my very first ever undercover operation. I was 19, green and I'd been assigned to retrieve some intel from someone deep undercover. All I had to do was go to a dinner party where I was to pick up a jump drive and then get out. Unfortunately there was a leak and my contact was shot right in front of me at the dinner. I maintained my cover, played things out until I could get the intel myself, and then signal for an extraction.

The agent who died had a brother who was a member of the Russian Mafia. The brother blamed my inexperience for the agent's death and decided to take Ranger and Lester a few years later as revenge. It took me several days to find them, going against orders, I might add, during which time Lester was almost beaten to death. Ranger was fairly unscathed when I found them, but he'd been drugged and kept out of it. The plan was to slowly torture Lester to death, and when they were finished, they were going to drop him off at my doorstep, and then repeat the process with Ranger. It was too close, and Les was touch and go for a while.

That's when the five of us decided that we needed to get out. Ranger was a father, Tank was just done, Lester needed time to recover and Bobby didn't trust us to look after ourselves without him. I worked my government contacts and put the wheels in motion to start Rangeman. I was going to be the first one out, then Ranger and Tank, then Bobby and Lester. Bobby and Lester should be retired now. I was one mission away from retiring when I was forced to re-sign my contract. The boys however, kept to their words. They started working as bounty hunters until they had the capital to get Rangeman off the ground. Rangeman is exactly what it says on paper. A private security firm that does occasional skip tracing and private investigations work. From what I read this weekend they followed the model Ranger and I built before I died, so the odd job for the government comes up."

"What kinds of jobs?"

"Mercenary work, hostage rescues, ex-fils, protection, you name it and they've done it. Most of it Top Secret. The security work and the bond enforcement keeps the men sharp between contracts. All of the work above board. Ranger has adrenaline issues, but he's not a vigilante. He's a war hero several times over, and he's saved countless lives. Yes, he has a moral code he sticks to but he hasn't broken any major laws to uphold it. Okay there was that time where he held that lady at gunpoint when Steph was captured by Stiva but that doesn't count."

Joe was silent. That wasn't the only major law broken in favour of protecting Steph.

"Abruzzi was sanctioned." she said quietly, "I kept my distance from Les and Bobby because I didn't trust myself to stay away if I saw them, but I kept tabs on Ranger. He was already assigned to end Abruzzi for reasons you don't have clearance to know about. He just got to enjoy it more after what happened with Steph."

This painted a whole new picture of the Mercenary. Sure he probably was a few donuts short of a dozen, but personal history aside it was reassuring to know that he wasn't out there committing felonies for profit.

"Joe, you are a good cop. A very good one. You are being wasted doing what you do and you're a little burnt out, but you're still one of the best. You should be using all of your resources and personal feelings aside, like or not, Ranger is one of them. He uses a team and an integral member of that team is Stephanie. Keeping her benched right now is the worst thing we can be doing. I know it freaks you out, but we want her proactive. Ranger can find anyone you ask him too, the man's a fucking bloodhound and her capture rate is better than his. The reason she gets into trouble is because you keep shit from her. We need her help going after these people, and she needs to know what's going on, so we can focus her energy in a direction that won't get her killed."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Ranger and Joe told me about my latest death threat and I don't know what bothered me most; that there were at least five people being paid to kill me or that it felt like it was just another day in the life of Stephanie Manoso. There was talk of a safe house but Tink had objected on my behalf. She said she needed me, and was calling Hector back in to help me. To make Ranger more comfortable with this arrangement, she was volunteering to head up my protection, so I didn't have to give up all freedom, for what could be months. It made her just a little more perfect and it pissed me off. I wanted to find a flaw.

Santos couldn't stop himself from touching her, and it seemed unconscious. She would show up and his hands would be on her. Like now for instance. She was briefing us on the different gang bangers that we should be looking out for. She was standing and pointing at a picture projected on the screen. His hand was on the back of her thigh and he was looking up at her paying rapt attention. There was no doubt he was listening to her and taking it seriously, he just needed her to be in reach. I guess I couldn't blame him.

I wondered if they had always been like this or if they were just reconnecting after three years of hell. Ranger and Tank didn't seem to even notice the intimate interaction. Then again Ranger did have his hand up the back of my shirt and was absentmindedly tracing a circle on my lower back while she spoke. Maybe it was just typical behaviour for this core group of men to maintain skin on skin contact with their women whenever possible. I was contemplating this, fully ensconced in denial land, when I realized the meeting was breaking up. Meagan was sitting on Lester's lap and they were discussing something in a folder that she was holding.

"What are they doing?" I asked Ranger.

"Profiling. Santos is good at it. He studied it because she needed someone to speak her language."

"Did she learn to be a sniper to help him too?" I teased. He either missed the tone or was ignoring it because he nodded without acknowledging the sarcasm.

"She's not as good a shot as he is but then not many people are. What she does is give him intel. She knows him and knows what he's looking for when he goes on missions. She makes sure he has it."

"They're a good team," I observed. They were true partners. They shared every aspect of their lives. They had learned what they could about each other's fields in order to offer the best support possible. Once again I found myself wondering how they made it through three years without each other.

"They are. You aren't going to recognize him in a few days. He's already turning back into the man he was before she disappeared."

"You mean the talkative flirt who can't keep his hands to himself will suddenly become all like you and speak using as few words as possible?"

He smirked, "Not exactly."

"But he won't flirt with me anymore because she'd kill him?"

"No she doesn't do jealous. She says it's not a practical emotion and they are both incorrigible flirts. It's like a sport for them. Watch them for a while and you will see what I mean," he said. He was trying to distract me out of my fear. This was odd since I hadn't really felt any yet. Denial was either firmly in place or I just trusted the people around me enough to keep me safe. Also Ranger had managed to get me a permit to carry concealed and now I was armed, legally, at all times. He made sure I was.

"How are you doing with all of this Cupcake?" Joe asked. I had almost forgotten he was in the room. He was working closely with Tink so she insisted that he be kept in the loop. She'd come back from TPD furious and had called Ranger to the mats. Much to everyone's dismay he'd scrambled the cameras and locked the gym. When they came out again they were both relaxed. Apparently she had slapped some sense into Joe (verbally since he wasn't limping) and Ranger (physically and they were both a little battered) and they were now fully cooperating with each other.

"I am okay," I answered Joe, "It hasn't really hit me yet. I do wish there was something I could do."

Ranger chuckled, "I told you she checked into denial land 20 minutes in."

"Cupcake, you do have something you have to do. You will be doing research. The more information you can give Santos and Harris the better the profile they can form, and the faster we can find these guys before they have a chance to get to you."

"Do you think they will do what they did last time?" I shuddered remembering the terror of being in that circle, being taunted, sure I was going to be raped and murdered until Sally showed up and saved the day with his school bus and Uzi. Ranger put a calming hand on the back of my neck. God my life is a train wreck.

"Nah your life isn't a train wreck," Meagan said without looking up, "Just go by the old saying, 'if they are shooting at you, you must be doing something right.' You are in law enforcement; if they aren't trying to kill you, you aren't doing your job."

"Did I say that out loud?" I asked. Ranger shook his head.

"It was written all over your face sweetheart," Meagan said and got off of Lester's lap. He frowned, guess he wasn't ready for her to leave yet, "Okay, We have motive, we have a target, we have names. I just need to get into their heads and for that I need everything right down to where they buy their shoes. Stephanie, can you run searches on these guys and Big D? When you are done can you put them in the shared folder?" She began to pace with a nervous energy that was not at all Ranger like. The focus however was. She stopped abruptly "I have to go think. Can I do that in this building or am I going back to my suite?"

"Hal and Cal's apartment should suit your needs, for now." Ranger said, "I'll let them know you are going to be in there for the next hour or so. Is that long enough?"

"Thanks" she walked out of the room, barefoot, leaving her heels under the table. Lester reached down and picked them, up with a grin.  
"You'd better get started on those searches," Ranger said, "When she says she wants everything, she means everything. She's given you her access codes, to all of the federal databases. Between them and our search engines, you should be able to paint a pretty good picture of these guys for her. Start running them and then come upstairs so we can talk."

Ranger gave me a gentle shove towards the door. Dismissed!

"Where is Meagan going?" I asked.

"Meagan is always cold," Bobby said, "she likes to boil herself in a bath and go over her notes a thousand times until the water gets cold or she comes up with something useful. Hal and Cal have the only bathtub in the building."

I went to my cubicle and started the searches for the 6 men that wanted me dead. Well the six that we knew of. While I was at it I started searches for a couple of skips I had picked up from Vinnie and then I found myself staring at the computer screen and delaying the conversation I knew I was about to have with Ranger. He was going to ask me to stay in the building until we caught all of them. He was going to say that it would free up manpower if he didn't have to worry about my constant need for protection. He was probably going to bring up the safe house again, apparently that's where Sally was. Maybe they would put us together so at least I would have someone to talk to while Ranger was out making the world safe for me again. I sighed. Maybe Ella would have chocolate cake for me with dinner. I'd start with that and maybe being a prisoner wouldn't feel so bad. I shoved away from my desk and made my way up to seven.

I went straight for the shower and allowed the scent of Rangers body wash to wash over me. I stood there until I started to prune and then I got out of the shower and into a pair of boxers and one of Ranger's t-shirts and his robe and then flopped down on our bed in my thinking position.

I had to figure out how to process the last few weeks. I went from Stephanie Plum, single, Bounty Hunter with a crappy apartment and POS cars, to Stephanie Manoso, employee of Rangeman, living in a luxury apartment with massive security and more armed guards than the President. I drove whatever luxury car in the fleet that I happened to have keys to at the moment and was currently being painted with a big fat bullseye because I tagged a guy with a Buick a couple of years ago.

Then there was Tink. I liked her, I really did. It was hard not to. In fact I could see us getting close. She was obviously one of the guys. She made people light up around her; especially Santos. If they could harness the electricity that crackled between them it would put a stop to the energy crisis. And I was jealous. I was really, irrationally, jealous. Not because she was with Les. They were unbelievably perfect for each other. No, that wasn't my problem at all. My issue was stupid, but no less a problem in my mind, even if I could acknowledge that I was being unreasonable. I was no longer the only girl at Rangeman and I was actually having trouble with not being the centre of attention.

When I was in the break room earlier today all the talk was about her and the video of her and Ranger fighting. They talked about how smart she was, how much Santos and Bobby fawned over her. There was speculation about her relationship with Brown, because clearly there was something there, it just didn't hold a candle to what she had with Lester. Speaking of Bobby, apparently he'd taken an evaluation of all of her scars and previous injuries so he could update her file. Vince had been there and seen a scar on her back. He said it was horrible. She had been hit by some shrapnel from an IED while she was in one of the Stans and had, had to tend to it herself until she could get to a field hospital. She'd had to make herself a tool so she could bandage herself and get the hell out of Dodge. The men spoke about her with the same kind of reverence that they spoke about Ranger, and I was starting to feel invisible.

"Babe." Ranger said from the doorway. He'd been standing there for probably five minutes watching me think.

"It's been an odd few weeks; I'm just trying to adapt." I said without moving from my thinking position. "It's weird how she isn't even working here yet but everyone is looking at her like she is, I dunno…"

"In command?" He supplied.

"Yeah." I said, "That's right, in command. Even Bobby and Lester are looking to her for leadership the way they look to you and Tank."

"That's because she's a Colonel. She outranks Brown and Santos. She fits easily because she should have been here for the start up. In fact the model for this company was something she helped develop. We just never were able to find someone to fill her shoes."

I wish I had something to contribute. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Your job."

"Is this the part where you tell me you want me to go to a safehouse? And then you say that you can spend more time searching and get this over faster if you don't have to worry about protecting me all of the time. And then I say no and you say please and I have to go because you said please."

He said nothing in response. He just folded his arms across his chest and looked like he might be thinking about smiling. I stared at him. God he's hot. He crossed the room in two strides and was suddenly over top of me on the bed supporting his weight on his elbows. He kissed me softly and said, "Actually, that's not what I was going to say."

"It wasn't?"

"No," He kissed my throat nipping gently. I was starting to find it difficult to really care what he was talking about. Then he was off of me dragging me reluctantly to my feet.

"I need you to do a distraction job for me." He said. "Tonight at a high class bar."

"Who's the guy?"

"Benny Buttinski."

"You are joking. Why would you go through life with a name like that? I mean wouldn't you change it as soon as you were allowed to?" He ignored my question.

"You just need to do your thing. Get in there, get his attention, get him out. Vince will be working the bar, Tink and Santos will be watching the room and Tank and I will be outside waiting for you."

"I'm surprised you didn't ask Tink," I pouted, "Seeing as I am probably safer inside and..." he put a finger to my lips.

"You are an invaluable member of my team Stephanie. Nobody does this job better than you do."

"I'm good at looking hot and shaking my ass. Awesome."

"No you put people at ease and make them feel like it's only natural that someone as beautiful as you are would be interested in them. It's not easy to do. You make people trust you. You aren't just valuable because you were the only girl. You are valuable because you are very good at your job."

"Thanks for the pep talk Batman. I've just been feeling invisible lately."

"You could never be invisible Babe." he said.

"What about the threat?"

"You will have 9 different Rangemen watching your back. The intel is saying that the hit men aren't here yet. If you promise me that you won't go anywhere without an escort, including the washroom, and you wear all of your panic buttons, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Where are we going anyway?"

"Surprise. Dress is expensive casual," He said and left me to get dressed.

I rooted around our closet at a complete loss for what to wear. I could go designer jeans that were painted on, I could do a short skirt. I stared at the closet looking for inspiration. There was a tap on the door. Ranger wouldn't knock so I tightened the belt on Ranger's robe and said, "come in!" I was surprised to see Lester.

"Meagan has a crisis. She needs clothes. She said to tell you preppy rocker vibe and that she has either the pumps she was wearing earlier or some knee high black boots. And that Morelli was supposed to take her shoe shopping but hasn't yet so do you wanna go on the weekend?" Santos said, he paused for a minute, his handsome face screwed up in thought. "I think that's all. Oh yeah and she needs to buy some clothes. All she has are suits and workout clothes because she's a workaholic and whenever she has taken time off she sleeps. She tends to babble when she's stressed."

I laughed, "I can't imagine it. She's always so relaxed."

"That's because she's working. Right now she's just a regular girl going to a bar and she has nothing to wear. It's apparently an absolute crisis. Ella was just sent on a mission for less boring makeup and Lord knows why it matters, better underwear. As if it makes a difference. I mean I love good lingerie on her, don't get me wrong, but why that's a crisis is beyond me."

"Of course it makes a difference! Better underwear gives you confidence, makes you feel sexy."

"Beautiful, I'm always confident and sexy and it doesn't matter what underwear I'm wearing."

"You're probably like Ranger. You probably don't wear any...aaand I said that out loud."

He laughed,"I'll leave it to your imagination."

I rummaged through my closet and produced a short black leather skirt, a black silk halter top with studding at the waist and a bunch of black spangly bracelets. All very preppy rocker wannabe. I found massive black hoop earrings and handed them all to Lester.

"If the leather skirt is too big I have a denim one that will work and Ella can take it in." I found said skirt and handed it to Les as well.

"What are you going to wear Beautiful?"

"No clue," I said.

"When in doubt, start with the shoes." I sent him a questioning look, "It's what Meagan says when she is having a hard time finding an outfit. Of course tonight she's insane but whatever."

"I think it's interesting that you call her Tink at work and Meagan at home."

"Actually I call her something else at home but she said that if I ever said it out loud in public she would kick my ass and, well, I know she could." he deadpanned and I laughed, "I call her Tink at work because I can't think of her as Meagan and still do my job. Also for probably the same reason you only call Ranger, Carlos or Ric, in private, she's different people at home and at work. She's much softer at home. Less business like, laughs more, isn't armed to the teeth. Lets me forget that she could probably kill me with a bobby pin and is just a normal, exceptionally gorgeous woman that needs help opening a pickle jar. She's Meagan. At work she's a lethal pixie who can completely fuck with your head and make you confess your deepest darkest secrets while thinking it was all your idea. Hell she is, The Pixiel drop that name in certain circles and you'll see mafia assassins wet their pants. It's sexy as hell to see her like that but it's only a small fraction of who she really is."

"I can understand that." I kissed him on the cheek, "I am happy for you. I can't imagine what you have gone through." He gave me a hug and then let me go and shrugged. Les and I were buddies. It wasn't going to change and I was relieved.

"I knew she was alive. She sent me a message. I lived like she was in the Wind for years. I knew she would come back eventually."

"Where's your bracelet?" I said looking for the leather cuff he always wore.

"Gave it back to it's rightful owner." he said, "Wear a skirt Beautiful. Ranger loves to look at your legs."

He strolled out of the closet looking more relaxed than I have ever seen him. His player swagger was gone replaced with the easy grace that Ranger had. He actually looked more like Ranger now too. A taller, leaner Ranger with green eyes but still...How weird is that? I realized then that I'd never really thought about him beyond what he wanted me to see. He was easily as good looking as Ranger. I knew he was a respected sniper. He was in the wind as often as Ranger was. He joked about Meagan being able to kick his ass but I'd seen him sparring with Ranger and he held his own and I knew that only the core guys were willing to go up against him and Tank flat out refused to.

What was striking was that now that Meagan was back there was a confidence about him that was gone before. I realized what it was about him that had been missing these last few days. Whenever I wore heels when I walked into a room Lester would have a funny look on his face for just a moment and then he'd flirt. I realized now that it was a combination of happiness to see me and disappointment that I wasn't her.

"Deep thoughts?" Ranger asked as he joined me in the closet. I assumed he was about to pick out his own clothes for the night.

"Yes actually," I said, "He loves her a lot. How is he not angry with her? With the whole situation? I was just thinking that in hindsight you could tell how sad he was. But he's not angry. Not even a bit. He's not even acting like she's been gone for three years. It might not be reasonable but you'd think it would be at least a little awkward."

"They've never, as far as I know, had an awkward moment. They are two sides of the same coin. He knows that she didn't do it by choice," Ranger said drawing me to him, "As for anger, well you didn't stick around to see what he did to the punching bag after she went back to work. Bobby eventually stepped in when it became apparent that the bag wasn't a good enough outlet. They went at it for quite a while. He's plenty angry, just not at her."

"I don't know if I understand. I don't know why she didn't just tell them to fuck themselves. I know that's what I would do if someone told me to stay away from you. Ask Joe. You were the reason for many an argument." He grinned, he was willing to work with Joe but that didn't mean he couldn't get a little joy out of knowing I fought for him and that it drove Joe crazy.

"She wouldn't have followed that order blindly. There would have been a very good reason," he said and before I could even form the question he added, "if it were just a threat to her own life, that wouldn't have been a good enough reason." He finished with a tone that told me the subject was closed. Ranger changed into black jeans and a loose fitting black button up shirt.

I listened to Meagan's advice and put on a pair of leg breaking, mile high red pumps, inspiring me to wear a short stretch dark denim skirt that was bordering on being a denim belt and a white silk t-shirt with slashed sleeves that exposed my shoulders. Ranger watched me get dressed and then kissed one of those bare shoulders. "Ready Babe?"

"Almost. I have nowhere to hide a gun."

"You won't need one; not for him."

"What's he wanted for?"

"Tax evasion."

"Isn't that what they got Al Capone for?" I teased. This got me an almost smile.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: The story is pretty much exactly the same as it was before. I have added more back story here and there, but the plot is the same. Don't own anything, just playing, and thank you for reading!**

Ranger escorted me down the elevator and I walked into the lot. Parked among the black cars was Meagan's Shelby. It was like a beacon of girly in an otherwise monochromatic lot. It had come in today and I was itching to drive it. Ranger looked at it like he was afraid he might go blind. "I thought Hector and Les were joking; fuck that's a pink car. Morelli actually drove it?"

I laughed, "She said she was proving a point. He said you get used to it." Ranger looked doubtful.

"I hope she realizes she can't take it tonight. It's too recognizable."

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Tink said right behind him. I jumped a mile, Ranger's expression didn't change at all. Probably he sensed her coming. Maybe he had a Tink-dar the way I had Rangedar? It was something to ask him later.

"You just demoted me," Ranger said mildly.

"I'm sorry, I meant Colonel Obvious," she bowed in mock supplication, Ranger looked like he wanted to roll his eyes but was holding it together. "We're taking one of the Explorers." she said offhandedly when she stood up.

Ranger made for the Turbo and Tink cocked an eyebrow, apparently it was a talent required in their unit.

"I'm not going to be the only one at the bar with a Porsche. It will still blend in. As far as I know you are the only person in New Jersey, possibly the world, with a pink Shelby. He probably knows a fed drives that car. He sees it and he bolts."

Ranger might have sounded defensive if he actually knew how to. It was amusing to see him explain himself to someone for a change and I had to bite my tongue to suppress a giggle. Apparently Ranger wasn't immune to the Ranger eyebrow. Tink had it nailed, right down to the almost smile. She shrugged indifferently as Lester snagged her around the waist and hoisted her up into the Explorer's passenger seat. "She's in a mood; we'll never get out of here, if she decides to start bickering with Ranger," Lester said, as he slammed the door, "It's really boring to watch because it's about 50% nonverbal, and usually in a language most of us don't speak."

Meagan wound down the window, "I heard that and can I just say, I've tried to teach you German, and Russian, and what's that one from that place in Africa?"

"Fucked if I can remember what it was called," Ranger said.

"Either way, I tried and you're a shitty student," she said.

"I am not a shitty student. Every time you try to teach me something, you lose focus and start taking clothes off."

"Well stop asking me to teach you to speak foreign languages, while you're in the fucking shower. What do you expect me to do?"

"That was one time," he said, "And that was only because you were singing that song and I wanted to know what you were saying." Lester walked around to the driver's side, and opened the door, "It's not my fault you fixated on that."

"Umm it wasn't just that one time, what about… no wait, I was in the shower that time. Sorry, my bad." The suspension in the Explorer shifted, as Lester got in, and the door slammed. I missed his reply to that as her window powered closed. Ranger grinned, and shook his head as he got into the Porsche.

"Are they always like that?"

"No," Ranger said, "They're worse when Bobby's with them."

"Would you freak out if I got a car that wasn't black?" I asked. He sort of glanced at me and I took it to mean that maybe he would think about it.

When we got to the bar, he took his time placing the wire, which is always fun and asked me if I might be interested in seeing if we might be able to reprise something we had done in the Turbo before. Maybe this time without my ass hitting the horn. He said he might have some ideas about how to accomplish this. It was with that thought in my head, that I walked into the nameless bar, with a spring in my step.

It turned out that Ranger wasn't being cryptic when he said 'Surprise' because that's what the bar's name was. It was theme bar, that had a rotating theme, it could be anything from Country Western to Karaoke. That night it was boasting, their Battle of the Bands, winner, as Headliner, and the bar was packed. Ram was working the door, so I got to feel cool, as I skipped the line and was let right inside.

Santos, Tink, Tank, and Vince were already inside waiting for me and those were just the Rangemen I knew were there. When I walked in the door I scanned the bar, looking for familiar faces, and had to hold back a yelp of surprise when I found Lester and Meagan. They were on stage as part of the band. Meagan was looking tiny sitting behind the huge drum kit with a hands free mic and Lester was holding a guitar and standing behind a mic. The rest of the people in the band were strangers but seemed comfortable with Tink and Santos and they had a great view of the bar. The band was warming up and Tink winked at me.

It took me all of two minutes to find my mark. He was dressed like an aging hipster, with a black cardigan over a black t-shirt and grey skinny jeans. He had messy dark hair that was in desperate need of cutting, and he was about four days passed looking like he had five o'clock shadow, and was making a decent start on a patchy beard. Despite the sad beard he wasn't bad looking, but I was having trouble getting passed the yellow knit scarf he was wearing. I didn't get why he had it on inside. All of his clothing was designer and he I suspected the diamonds in his watch were real.

I sidled up next to him at the bar, and waved to get Vince's, and subsequently his, attention. When I sat, I brushed against him and I allowed my skirt to ride dangerously high as I crossed my legs. He watched the action completely riveted.

"Babe," Ranger's voice said in my ear, "Let that skirt ride any higher and I'm going to forget we're here to work."

I smiled at that, and fingered my necklace as I ordered a fake tequila from Vince. It was actually just water, because I'm such a light weight. I was on my third shot, and wondering how many I was going to have to do before his eyes left my legs. I'd spent the day drinking coffee like it was my job, if I drank too much more, the need to pee was going to become a bit urgent. Of course once I started thinking about that, I had that feeling like I might have to go soon.

His eyes finally made it up to my cleavage, and parked there, "I like your uh... Necklace." He said so I fiddled with my batman necklace, again.

"OH this? It's my favourite."

"You have a thing for Batman?"

"I have a thing for badass, eccentric, rich men, with a penchant for black cars," I said, "Doesn't every girl?"

It wasn't so much that I could hear Ranger laughing through my earpiece but I could feel him. Santos on stage was getting a pat on the back so it's possible that he choked on his water. Vince knocked over the fake Tequila and Tank actually did laugh.

"Is that so?" Mr. Buttinski flashed his Rolex and reached for my Batsignal, and I playfully slapped his hand away, "What if I were to tell you that my car isn't exactly black so much as it's a Black Serires? Would it still count?"

What the hell does that even mean?

My earpiece came to life, "It's an expensive type of Mercedes. There is only one in the lot and it's yellow. Definitely not a Batmobile," Tank said.

"Yeah, and they can't drive in a straight line," Tink said.

I directed the smile the commentary elicited, at Buttinski, and leant forward, running my fingers the length of his stupid yellow scarf.

"Why don't you show me your car and I can tell you what I think?" I whispered.

He threw some money down on the bar for both of our drinks and then we strolled out of the club. Tank and Ranger were waiting at the door and had Buttinski in cuffs within a couple of seconds.

Ranger produced my rings from his pocket and slipped them on my finger with a kiss on my knuckles.

"That was a trap?" he said balefully.

"Don't feel too bad," I said, "It just turns out I already have a Batman." Ranger kissed my hair, in order to hid a laugh, as Tank took Butinski off. "You know what sucks?" I pouted.

"No, what sucks Babe?" He smiled at me indulgently.

"I worked too fast and didn't get to hear Les sing."

"Beautiful, we promised the band a set. Get your ass back in here and we will be more than happy to entertain you." Santos's voice said in my ear.

"Any requests?" Meagan asked. I thought about it for a minute. "No Metalica. I haven't warmed up my voice for metal." she added and Ranger grinned.

"No Brittany Spears and we will be fine," I said.

"Are you sure? Because Les does a really great Spears. His Toxic will bring the whole house do-"

"Tink, so help me if you ever, and I mean ever, want another foot massage ever you will stop talking right now..."

"Oh come on! That time at the Blue Lotus, all those boys were-" At this point Ranger pulled my earpiece out and switched off my mic.

"That could go on for a while." Ranger said and then he burst out laughing. Apparently he was still receiving. "I forgot about the pink chaps."

He was still chuckling when he kissed me.

RSRSRSRSRS

Tink and Les, just wow. Both of them could play their instruments well. Tink had a musical voice when speaking so it wasn't a surprise that she could sing. What was a surprise was how well Santos' voice complemented hers and vice versa. Sometimes she sang backup for him and sometimes he for her. The band they were playing with was called, By Your Request and they played anything from Garth Brooks to Pink Floyd. If the audience requested it they played it. They ended up playing two sets before Tink plead old injury and begged to be relieved on the drums.

Finally free from the stage she and Santos found a "quiet" corner of the bar where they could be alone for a few minutes. "Watch," Ranger whispered in my ear. I watched Lester take off her sky high pumps and quickly massage the soles of her feet. He looked like he was aiming for specific targets and I watched as her whole body relaxed. It took less than five minutes, then he replaced her shoes and pulled her to her feet. They walked hand in hand back to the rest of us and I saw what Lester meant about the difference between Meagan and Tink. Her posture wasn't as perfect, her smile was gentler, mischievous even. Sure she was often smiling but this was different.

"So Hermana, you didn't play my song request." Ranger teased.

"Yeah Meagan, what's with that?" Bobby asked. That was the first time I'd heard him call her anything other than Tink. I guess he saw the change in her too.

"Hey don't blame me," She held up her hands defensively, "I was game. Talk to your boy here; he refused."

"There was no way I was singing Genie in a Bottle. I did that one time only and that was only because you guys each paid me $100," Lester said, "It's bad enough that we had to play so much One Direction tonight."

Meagan giggled, "Yeah we did. But you knew all the words there Handsome. Do you have a guilty pleasure you want to share?" He wrapped her in a half hug half headlock and pulled her to him and whispered something in her ear that caused her to burst out laughing.

"Why do I think that didn't go well for me?" Bobby asked and signalled for the waitress to bring another round.

"Because it didn't," Lester said.

Tank came back and there was a lot of reminiscing about the good old days. A couple of hours in, and everyone except for Meagan and Ranger was pleasantly lubricated and we were starting to draw looks from the bar. Around midnight Morelli showed up because there had been a complaint and he was asked personally to speak to us about our rowdiness. He was off duty so Meagan invited him to join us.

After a couple of beer he asked her to dance and she hopped off of her chair and let him lead her out to the floor. Joe didn't dance unless he was at a wedding and I was wondering what he was playing at. Turned out he was getting free dance lessons, because he was going to be in a wedding, and ballroom dancing was required. The band was playing Sinatra and she was showing him how it was done. They were laughing a lot as he twirled her on the floor. Meagan didn't do jealous, and she was a flirt, and Joe was clearly attracted to her, so I watched Lester to see what he thought of this development.

He glanced at them a couple of times, smiled as he watched Meagan do some complicated footwork, that Joe couldn't begin to follow, and then he went back to his conversation. He was completely unconcerned that she was having such a good time dancing with Morelli. When the music changed again, Lester pushed his chair out from the table, in an open invitation for Meagan to sit on his lap, which she did, with alacrity and then stole a sip of his beer. She was still flushed and laughing and Joe looked completely at ease.

Later Meagan and I were at the bar ordering another round of drinks, our waitress long ago scared off by the sheer size of the men at the table, when Carol Sanduski, a burg girl a few years older than me, came up to Meagan and tapped her on the shoulder. I was good at reading Ranger so I was good at reading Meagan, and Meagan had just resisted an urge to reach for her gun out of pure reflex. It wasn't smart to approach people like them with any kind of aggression. Carol obviously didn't know that, so she didn't realize how lucky she was that Tink was in a good mood when she laid into Meagan.

"I've seen you hanging around Joe and I think what you are doing is disgraceful."

"I beg your pardon?" Meagan said, "What'd I do?"

"I saw you come you all over that man over there and then, Joe comes in and you pretend that nothing happened. That's what she did," head jerk towards me, "now look what's happened? Poor guy is heart broken and you are doing it to him again!" She said her piece and was about to storm off but I decided that I needed to defend my friends.  
"Carol, just out of curiosity when did your husband lose all the weight?" I asked innocently.

"What?!" She spun around to look at me.

"I just assumed he lost weight and maybe got some hair plugs because obviously that's who that had to have been out there on the dance floor. You know, with how you were draped all over him and all. Or did you get a divorce I haven't heard about yet?" Carol glared at me and stomped off.

About ten minutes later my cell phone rang. It was my grandmother asking if it was true that Joe's new girlfriend dumped him for Ranger's cousin.

"Okay, what the fuck? One kiss," She held up a finger to emphasize her point, "that I didn't reciprocate I might add, and he's my boyfriend? How do you figure that?"

"How did you not reciprocate?" I asked incredulously, "I've been so pissed off at Joe that I wanted to run him over with a Buick, and I still kissed him back. That's something he's very good at."

"It wasn't easy," She said with a snort, "And I was working on three years of no male physical contact, and no fucking clue if there was any point in being faithful. I was tempted to do a helluva a lot more than kiss him."

Just one more thing she had in common with Ranger, crazy self control.

"How many meals have you had at his place?" I asked, returning to the problem at hand.

"A dozen maybe? We work together and we can talk more openly at his place than we can in a restaurant," She said, "Why?" I nodded. Light dawning.

"Yeah, it's called Marriage by Pot Roast. They all assume that you're cooking for him, and that pretty much means it's only a matter of time before you officially walk down the aisle. If you've eaten dinner with his mother, then it's basically a marriage announcement."

"Jesus. You don't want me to cook, but Angie brings us things to heat up all of the time. You don't think, she thinks Joe is more than my partner do you?"

"Angie is surprisingly level headed, she's probably figured that out," I said. She scanned the bar. There were several people staring at us.

"They all from the Burg?"

"Most of them," I replied, "or their parents are from there." I watched her assimilate that information, probably looking for a way to deal with it. She caught Ranger's eye and they both smirked about something and she leaned over the bar and ordered him another mineral water.

"Can I ask you something? I mean Ranger said that your relationship wasn't physical but you know each other so well. I trust him but…"

"He doesn't talk more than he has to and you are dying of curiosity," she finished and I nodded, "First of all our relationship is physical. The man doesn't speak, physical communication is necessary. What he meant was, we haven't been in a sexual relationship."

The bartender handed her a tray with our round of drinks and she picked up her cranberry juice and took a sip.

"Why not?"

"Do you really want to know the extent of any romantic entanglements we might have almost had? I can tell you. I promise it won't bother you, it might even make you feel better about me."

"Okay," I said.

"The night before Carlos enlisted, he came to my place and we had every intention of sleeping together. We'd come really close earlier in the week and were interrupted by Hector. So Carlos gets to my apartment, we know it's going to be forever before we see each other again. There's no question we love each other, and we've made out enough times to know that if we sleep together, it's going to be fantastic. And we came to a sudden realization that it was a colossally bad idea. Like I mean a really, really, awful idea. We used each other for everything, and we were codependent as fuck. I mean neither of us made a move without the other. If one of us got into trouble the other one did too. If we slept together, and then he left, it would have destroyed us both. What we needed was to be apart. I saw him again, just after Julie was born, and the chemistry was gone. I still loved him, but I had no desire to sleep with him anymore, and the feeling was mutual. When I met Lester, I realized why what I felt for him was so different from what I felt for Carlos."

"And the difference?"

"I was never happy with Ranger," she said, "With Lester, even when things are bad, we can get into each others head and we can make each other feel better. He can make me laugh when no one else can, and when he goes dark, I can get him back."

"Lester goes dark?" I said with disbelief.

"He's a special forces sniper, and he's the best in the world," She said, "Believe me, Snipers have to go really fucking dark, and you don't get to be as good as Lester is, unless you love it. Trust me, that fucks with your head, especially when you have to do something really fucked up. Anyway, Ranger and I are close, but I'm no threat to your relationship."

"Weirdly, only thought you were a threat on the drive to Haywood after he saw you in the Bonds Office. I trust him completely."

"I know you do," she smiled, "He needs that."

"I just wonder why I've never heard of you until recently."

"Ah." she took another sip and put her glass down on the bar, and told the bartender to put some vodka in her drink this time, "My guess is for Lester's benefit and to some extent Bobby's. He talks about his sisters though right?"

"Sometimes."

"I'm the one who used to make him braid her hair," she said with a chuckle, "When I met him I had a cast on my wrist and didn't like to be touched. I felt safe with Hector, Carlos and Julio. Julio is hopeless at hair, Hector and Carlos can both do a mean french braid. Oh and if you ever want someone to do your makeup, Hector is the man to call. He used to do my stage makeup all of the time."

I started laughing and she answered me with a big smile, "Oh man that just destroyed his image."

"Oh honey I could tell you stories. Some day remind me to tell you about Tank in the circus," She grinned as she took another sip, "Stick with me Steph. The ammunition I can give you…"

"Hey? What is taking so long?" Joe bellowed as he approached.

"Just having a little girl time." She gave him a lazy once over. Joe was looking really good and her smile let him know that.

"You're such a fucking tease Princess."

"I won't deny it," She smirked at him, "But just because I can appreciate a good looking man doesn't make me a tease." She hopped off her bar stool and walked past Lester, she skated her nails lightly across his back while he was lining up a shot in his game of pool. He stilled completely and she continued on without breaking her stride. His eyes were now glued to her ass. "That." She said when she returned to us, "Makes me a tease." Lester looked up from his game with a huge heart stopping grin that screamed payback was coming. She met his gaze with a look of feigned innocence and then picked up a couple of the drinks.

We carried the round back to the table, short of seats she perched on Bobby's lap as it was available and Lester was still hustling pool "So Gorgeous, you gonna sing for us again?" He asked.

"I might be convinced." she said, "It would depend upon the song."

A few requests were lobbed at her and she allowed herself to be bullied back on stage. She got behind the mic and spoke to the band and they started playing the intro to Losing Sleep by John Newman. As the table started to empty onto the dance floor a new face showed up. One I hadn't seen since before I got married, and slipped in to the seat next to Ranger. Hector looked out of place in the bar and he knew it.

"Hec!" I gave him a hug which he returned briefly, "Where have you been?"

He looked around to make sure nobody was really paying attention, the man only spoke English around those he trusted. The list was small, "Helping her." he said quietly. He gave Ranger a significant look.

"With what?" Ranger asked.

"A personal matter."

"For how long?"

"Almost two months now."

"And you didn't think you should tell me? Julio?" Ranger's voice remained even but there was a hardness in his eyes. Hector had just disappeared without saying where he was going, I know Ranger had been worried.

"She told me not to. She's terrified Hermano; I haven't seen her like this since that asshole Mark."

"Why?"

"Not sure yet. She's just had me hacking into different systems, and getting her everything. She's looking for something, but she hasn't found it yet, and she's getting desperate."

"And she won't tell you what you are looking for?" He shook his head no.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"Hey Meagan?"

"Yes Lester?"

"What happened to your ring?" He was playing with the fingers on her left hand and it was oddly relaxing for both of them.

"I thought you had it? I left it in the safe in my office. I thought you found it when you cleaned out my personal effects. Clearly not," Meagan said. They were curled up on the sofa in their little apartment on four watching the flames flicker in their gas fireplace. Meagan's voice was a little hoarse from singing and had dropped an octave; it was now more sultry than soothing. After she rejoined the band for one song the crowd, aka Rangemen and some of Trenton's finest, demanded a couple more songs and she ended up finishing the set with some Adele. Meagan had a powerful singing voice that was barely used, and while she had nailed the song she had strained her voice a little. Now they were home and it was late, or rather It was early. They decided to stay up to watch the sunrise figuring the two hours they had until they had to get ready for work wasn't worth going to bed over. At least not for sleep.

"I didn't clean out your office. Tank did. General Asswipe emptied the safe because of the sensitive material in it." She wrinkled her nose.

"There wasn't any sensitive material in there; just our passports and some jewelry. We were only there for a week." She twisted in his embrace so she could see his face, "Why didn't you do it?"

"Bobby sedated me and they had me on a helo out of there as soon as they told me they were calling off the search and classifying you as KIA. I didn't take it well."

That was an understatement. Tank had been the one to break the news to him and Lester, for the first time in his life, understood the desire to kill the messenger. He'd lost his mind and attacked Tank. Until he told him she was dead, Meagan was just out there waiting to be found. Tank as good as pulled the trigger when he told Lester she was gone. It had taken both Ranger and Bobby to hold him still enough to shoot him full of drugs. It was the reason Tank refused to spar with Lester anymore. He would flashback to the look of anguish on Lester's face every time he saw him in the gym.

Lester had been sedated for 48 hours after that so he wouldn't cause further injury to his own gunshot wound. "It was a few weeks later that I found your bracelet in the box and I knew that you were alive."

"Lester I am so sorry." She knew the words were inadequate. He should be angry, he shouldn't have taken her back so easily. He shouldn't have waited for her.

"It's not your fault," He said bitterly. He squeezed her tightly and buried his face in her hair, "You let me know you were okay as soon as you could." He quietly held her. He was still having moments where he felt like it was a dream; that she wasn't really real.

"I'll tell you this, none of us will accept an assignment from that bastard ever again. What leverage did he use on you to make you stay on?" He asked after a while.

"You," she said quietly, "I either stayed dead and under contract to the government or I'd lose you. At first he reminded me that you were barely alive in a hospital bed with a very serious gunshot wound. That it wouldn't be too hard to make it look like you died from your injuries. Then he showed me the next solo mission he was proposing for Ranger. He was still under contract, so he wouldn't have had a choice. He wouldn't have survived it and if by some miracle he had, well the next one would be worse. And the next and the next, and then he'd do the same to Bobby and Tank. Later, once I knew you were okay, you topped the mission list."

"Are you serious?" Santos asked incredulously. It took a lot of balls to threaten someone like Meagan.

"Yes I have powerful allies that helped me watch your backs, but I couldn't take the risk that he'd get one over on me. That somehow he would wait until I was distracted and go after you. I knew that if he was still focused on me he'd leave you alone."

"Why did he want you dead Gorgeous?"

"That's the thing, I don't know. The second last mission, before you took me to Paris, he was jumpy. He wanted me to get a file off of a computer and he was acting like more of an asshole to me than usual."

"I remember; it was something to do with an Arms Dealer and the file was supposed to list trade routes and drop sites." She nodded.

"I was to make a copy of it and bring it back to him," She frowned, "just before we were about to deploy he ordered me to delete the hard drive, and he wanted me to make it look like a computer glitch."

"In my experience men who deal in the illegal weapons trade are paranoid. A computer glitch of that scale would make them suspicious; any intel you gathered would be next to useless afterwards."

"I argued exactly that. He told me that the reason was need to know only and I didn't need to know. I did what I was ordered to do. Made the copy; used one of Hec's viruses, and wiped out the hard drive."

"What was really in the file?"

"I don't know. Certainly not what he said was in it, but I didn't get a chance to analyze it. There wasn't time and Asswipe took the jump drive before my feet hit the ground when we got back. I've had Hector looking for the file for months now. I knew my contract was almost up and Asswipe has been talking about renegotiation of said contract. I know whatever is in that file will get him off my back but we can't find it. He either destroyed it or he has it well hidden. Hector hasn't been able to find it."

"Did he take the back up too?" She looked at him with wide eyes, "What? Don't you always get a back up?"

"Fuck, Lester you're a goddamned genius," She kissed him enthusiastically, "Do you still have my stuff?"

"Of course I do. Ella put it all in Storage downstairs."

"I need my boots!" She jumped off of the sofa and started pulling on her discarded clothing, "I told Hector that I needed a safe place to hide a jump drive and he went all Q on me and hid a compartment in the heel of one of my combat boots. I normally take the drive out on the transport back. But you, you gorgeous man you, distracted me on the way back. I'm almost positive I didn't give him the backup. It's probably still in my boot."

"Didn't you take those boots to South America?"

"I did but I didn't wear them on that last mission," She took off toward the door and he snagged her by the wrist.

"That room is Ella's domain; she'll be able to find your boots faster than you could hope to. She and Luis are in Newark and will be back at 0900. They can look for them then." He looked at the clock on the cable box, "we have an hour before we have to be up. Let's use it wisely."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Ranger looked at his oldest friend with some concern and stopped the elevator and scrambled the cameras, "What's wrong Hermana?"

"I'm just being stupid." Meagan replied.

"I highly doubt that." He said wryly, "You have an IQ North of 180, last time anyone checked. You aren't physically capable of stupid."

"You know Lester and I got engaged before I died right?"

"I had a feeling," he replied.

"Last night he asked me what happened to my ring. He didn't elaborate on why he asked and it's been driving me crazy since."

"And?"

"There's no and. Are we starting over? Are we still engaged? Is he pissed with me? I know he's happy I'm back. I know he loves me, but it's freaking me out. Saying sorry isn't enough, and he says he understands but…"

"You're babbling."

"I don't have time to be stressed about this, but it's all I've been able to think about since he brought it up. I'm not sleeping so I can't think properly, between Steph and…Nevermind… Steph is priority and I should be focusing on not just because it's what I'm paid for, but because she means so much to you, but I'm having a hard time. It's like I'm obsessed and I can't lock it down."

"Come here." Ranger said and pulled her into a hug. He didn't need to say anything. She pulled away after a few seconds and re-started the elevator.

"Thanks."

The doors opened a second later on 6 and he used his fob to unlock the door directly in front of the lift. She opened the door and went inside.

"Why the hell is this vacant? Shouldn't this be Tank's?" Meagan asked.

The apartment took up almost half of the sixth floor, had very high ceilings and was unfinished. Ella and Luis had the only other place on six and it was only marginally larger than the places on 4. It was larger than the apartment on seven as it came equipped with a small dance studio and a second bedroom. Otherwise the floor plans were similar.

"He's got one on 4 and he has a house. This was always going to be yours; we started construction just before you died."

"And you just left it?" She looked incredulous.

"Les wouldn't take it; said you'd earned it, not him. Since you own it and you left everything to him, he just left it vacant. I've spoken to some contractors and they can have it finished in about a week, maybe two, if you can decide on floors, and a tub and they are in stock. Luis said he'll bring you paint chips to look at."

"Steph might like to help with selection so she doesn't go crazy. Searches can be mind numbing and I'd like to keep her exposure to a minimum. I'm sure you'll sleep better if I keep her in the building as much as possible."

"Thanks for that. I'm having a hard time remaining objective."

"So don't be." She said simply.

His nostrils flared slightly and he almost frowned. He obviously thought she was being obtuse.

"Either use the feelings Hermano or have someone else take the lead. You are no good to us if you are out of your mind with worry. The team is here to help you, not just make you look good." He didn't reply to that. He wasn't expected to.

"Want me to call Steph to help you with this?" He asked, pretending it was his idea, knowing the reaction it would get out of his former partner. He was rewarded with a mischievous grin.

"Sure. What the hell." She said. Steph was going to love her.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Tank's door was open so Santos knocked on the doorframe. "Hey Tank. Can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure man, come in." Tank waved Santos into his office. Lester sat down, he looked tired but happy. Tank grinned, "You are going to have to start running more so you can match her stamina man."

"I've got three years of pent up energy working for me; it's not a problem. I just need to stay hydrated and maybe get a shot of B12." They both laughed.

"It's better here now. Have you noticed? Bomber is where she belongs, the boss's head is finally out of his ass and he's no longer calling everyone to the mats, and Tink is alive. It's like old times but better."

"She's still in trouble. Hell they both are. Meagan's told me some of what's going on but I know she's leaving shit out."

"Should Ranger be hearing this?"

"Probably, but that's actually not why I am here."

"What's up man?"

"You cleaned out her office; were you there when Asswipe emptied her safe?"

"You talkin' 'bout the ring?" He'd seen the general open the box and they'd both been surprised by the ring. He hadn't really appreciated just how good with his money Lester actually was until he'd seen it.

"Yeah man. I gave it to her the last time we had leave. We went to France. I proposed at Versailles in the Hall of mirrors. She cried. It was awesome. Third best day of my life."

"I saw it; Asswipe said it was worth a small fortune and he insisted on delivering it to you personally. Guess he never did huh?"

"He did not; I just always assumed she had it."

"I'll make some calls," Ranger said from the doorway. Lester turned around and looked at his cousin. He had Ranger's personalities figured out too, and right now he was looking at Ric, the cousin who'd been more like a brother, and not his boss."

"Don't worry about it Ric; she's in a lot of trouble with Asswipe as it is. I'll just get another one; it won't be the same but it's the thought that counts."

"What's she told you?" Ranger closed the door and took a seat and Lester filled them in. When he was finished Ranger pinched the bridge of his nose like he had a migraine starting. Tank tossed him a bottle of Advil and handed him a bottle of water. He popped a couple of the pills and contemplated what Lester had just told him."

"Sweet. My wife is being stalked by five hit men and my little sister has a corrupt black ops General gunning for her. This isn't going to end well." He ran a hand over his face in another uncharacteristic display of stress. "Fanfuckingtastic. Let me make some calls. I might have to put you both into hiding but I'll make sure she's not going to get blackmailed into another three year contract." He reassured Lester. "She was already burning out when she died; it can only have gotten worse since then."

"I appreciate that," Lester said, "I'm thinking it might be a good idea to go to the house. It's secure, and we have resources set up for a quick getaway. If we have to disappear, we can."

"Good," Ranger said, and he sighed, "I'll make you a deal. Let me worry about your woman; you worry about mine."

"And how do you want me to do that?"

"Stephanie can handle a day, maybe two of being cooped up before she starts going insane. Give her something to do; maybe show her how to build the profiles we're going to need, to catch these bastards. If I'm not worried that she's going to get fed up and ditch her protection, I'll be able to put some distance on this, and maybe be able to remain a little objectivity."

He rested his arms on his legs, and contemplated the part bottle of water, trying to suppress the stress.

Santos patted him on the shoulder, "She'll be alright man; she's been through worse and Steph is tough." Ranger chuckled. That was true. Though if they kept her cooped up any longer they might have to start giving her a constant IV drip of chocolate cake just to keep her stress levels down.

Santos got up to leave, "Hey, what were the other two?" Tank asked.

"Other two what?"

"You said that her saying yes was the third best day of your life. What were the other two?"

He smiled, "The day I met her, and the other day when I saw her in that conference room." He turned around and walked out.

"I'd be nauseous, but it's nice to see the real Lester Santos again. They are going to be unbearable for the next little while, and I don't think a lecture on professionalism in the work place is going to be effective."

"Besides, how do you tell a man who hasn't seen the woman he loves for years, that he's not allowed to touch her. Especially when he's working fourteen hour shifts to protect your wife's ass."

"Exactly," Ranger said, "That and Meagan would just tell me to fuck off, and probably make out with him in the com room just to piss me off. He'd better fucking propose again soon though, or Meagan is going to completely unspool, and that's never pretty."

"You know I saw that ring," Tank said thoughtfully, "It might actually be a good idea to make some calls about it. There might be a simple solution to Tink's problem."

"Explain."

"Well they got Capone on tax evasion right?" he leaned forward, "Maybe we don't need to nail him on whatever Tink thinks she might have. What do you know about diamonds?"

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Babe I need to see you upstairs," Ranger said into my phone, before I had even had a chance to say "yo." Then he hung up before I could answer him. I looked at Tink.

"How come he has nice manners everywhere but the phone?" Tink was sitting in the guest chair in my cubicle reading about the life and Times of Big D on her iPad. She had her stockinged feet up on my desk and we were sharing a box of doughnuts. We were using an overturned file box as a makeshift picnic table and it was in between our two chairs. It turned out she loved refined sugar as much as I did and it was feed the blooming friendship between us. Tink shrugged her shoulders.

"What's he want?"

"Me, upstairs," Tink grabbed my wrist and checked my watch.

"Bit late for a nooner," She said around a mouth full of bear claw.

"He usually calls me into his office if he wants that. It's a more efficient use of company time if he doesn't have to go all the way upstairs." I replied. I liked talking with Tink like this. No teasing about my sex life and no fits of the vapours at the thought of Ranger naked. Why? She's seen him naked many times, and while there are certain family resemblances, Lester has the nicer ass.

"Touché" Tink said with a grin, "Mind if I hang out here? I'm comfortable, and what's supposed to be my office is currently being used to store, all manner of crap."

"Not at all; Just save me a couple of doughnuts. I'm almost done with Freddy Finch. You should be able to pull him up on your iPad soon." Finch was one of the baddies supposedly contracted to off me. I had two more to research for Meagan. After the first two searches she'd sent one of the men for donuts for us and she'd asked Lester if he could find her brain food. I was dying to know what fuelled that mind. He wasn't back yet.

I finger waved and walked out of the cube. When I got into our apartment I found Ranger, Tank and Hector sitting around a pad of paper. Hector was trying to draw something Tank had seen briefly years before. It looked like a ring.

"What's up?"

"You have a top secret mission Babe," he said, "You're going to have to work on it up here, I don't want Meagan involved unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Oh...Kay...What is it?" I asked cautiously. I knew I was going to get lobbed a lot of busy work to keep me in the building and I was a bit leery of people trying to interest me with "Top Secret" missions. Even if people meant Ranger.

"Santos and Tink were engaged before she uh you know…" Tank said, making a vague gesture, and letting the sentence end there. I didn't blame him, saying 'before she died' was weird, and saying 'before she faked her death' sounded a little Days of Our Lives. "Before she went on that last mission she put her engagement ring in the safe in her office. I was in the office cleaning out her personal effects, and General Asswipe, insisted on emptying the safe, and he found the ring. It was clearly very valuable and he said that he would deliver it to Lester, personally. That didn't happen, in fact, it never went near Lester, and he always assumed Tink was wearing it when she went on the mission."

"You want me to see if I can find out what happened to it?" I asked. Awww how sweet it that!?

"This is actually not about sentiment Babe," Ranger said. "This General has been doing his damned best to get Meagan killed for the last three years and he's pressuring her to re-up. She can't do it, she doesn't look it, but she's barely hanging in there. If she goes on another mission, she'll probably not survive; we need to buy time, to find evidence that will put him away forever. Meagan left everything to Lester, full stop. Any personal effects of hers in that safe, were his after she died and the theft of that ring is a felony. That should be enough to get him off of her back, and give the feds probable cause to start a larger investigation."

"How much is the ring worth?"

"If Tank's description and Hector's research is accurate, about $500k," Ranger said.

"Yowzers!" I knew they made good money with their government contracts but damn.

"Babe."

I had to see this ring! I fished out my phone and called Connie, "I'm looking to see if Santos had a ring insured about three years ago," I said when she answered. I could have done the search myself but Tink was in my cube and Connie was quick if you told her exactly what you were looking for. It took her five minutes of digging into Lester's financials before she answered.

"Yep, it's a gorgeous ring from the looks of the picture. Who knew the clown had that kind of game?" Connie sounded impressed.

"Thanks Con email me the picture and the policy." I disconnected and realized I pulled a Ranger and hadn't said goodbye before hanging up on her. My mother would have been horrified.

A few seconds later my phone dinged and I opened the picture of the ring, "Holy shit!"

The ring was a three carrot Princess cut pink diamond set in rose gold framed with a zillion smaller pink diamonds on a slender rose gold and pink diamond eternity band. It was stunning. There was a matching eternity wedding band on the policy as well.

"Jealous?" Ranger asked with some surprise; my own ring was nothing to sneeze at.

"Of course not. This ring isn't my style at all, it's 1000% Tink though. It's gorgeous and over the top; I'm not surprised Lester piked this at all."

Ranger handed Tank my phone, "Yup; that's the ring all right," he said and Hector whistled.

"Do you know where he had it made?" I asked. This was no ordinary pick it up at any jewellery store ring. He had this custom made for her; no question.

"Nope," Tank said.

"It's probably on the insurance form; is the General married? Does he have a daughter? Girlfriend?"

"Uuuhhhhh," From all three.

"Men," I mumbled, "Okay I need the General's name." I took my phone back from Tank.

"General Seymour Humphries," Ranger said.

"One of these days I am not going to believe you because you will have made up a name just to test me," I muttered. I tapped in 'General Humphries and pink diamond' into google. It was a long shot; pink diamonds of any size, weren't cheap and if he was smart, he'd have sold them individually. Apparently he wasn't smart because I got a bunch of hits mostly from capitol hill gossip columns.

"He gave it to his girlfriend Sandra Freemint three years ago; they have since been married." I pulled up some images and sure enough she was wearing the ring on her right pinkie at a charity gala. I showed the boys the picture and then scrolled through googled some more. "You are going to like this. They are now divorced, and she lives in DC with newspaper publisher Eric Whitman."

I googled her alone, and saw her wearing the ring on her pinkie at a recent state dinner, "and she still has the ring."

I looked up, "What?!" I nearly shouted at the three sets of brown eyes that were staring at me.

"You're really good at this Babe."  
I shrugged. I grew up in the burg; I know gossip and this sort of thing is what I excelled at.

"Is Lester still paying for the insurance on the ring?" Ranger asked.

I pulled up the form and read through it.

"Yup, and your guess was right it's worth $501,800. The wedding band is worth about $70K."

Ranger kissed my cheek and walked into his office. He got on the phone and twenty minutes later he came back out. "I need to go to Washington; I'll be back tomorrow at the latest. Send me those links and the insurance policy," He kissed me with quite a bit of tongue and then he was gone. I turned to Hector and Tank.

"What just happened?" I asked.

"I don't know but I think we might want to watch the news tonight," Tank said.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Tink?" We were back in my cube, she'd been to see the Director of the field office and was dressed in a beautiful black suit, and after seeing the ring Lester bought for her, and noting her always expensive shoes, I started to wonder just how loaded she actually was. My guess was very.

"Mmmm?" She said.

"Why do you care what brand of sneakers Finch wears?"

"Can't fuck with his head if I don't know what makes him tick," She said without looking up. She was one of those true multitaskers who could actually effectively do three things at once without making a mistake. It was annoying. "Some guys are really into shoes. If he shops at Target-she pronounced it Tar-jay- then he doesn't care about his shoes, but if he dropped $2000 on a pair of Jordan's, then we might be able to use them as leverage. Or it might mean he's vain and in that case a little threat of facial scarring could be enough to get him to back off. Though in fairness, the threat of facial scarring works on just about everyone."

"You're really scary sometimes."

"You have no idea," She said all of this in a bored tone while she continued to flip through Big D's file. Just another day at the office for the killer Pixie.

I shuddered. "Okay. I don't know if I want to know the answer to this," I said and she looked up, "But why are we gathering data to uhh-mess with their minds exactly?" She sat back in her chair and thought about it. Probably trying to come up with a PSYOPS for dummies type explanation.

"It's all about intimidation; like a pissing contest if you will. When they first found out about the price on your head every wannabe Slayer in Trenton was gonna go after you. Ranger and Joe caught one before he got into your apartment and they put the fear of Ranger into him. He spread it around that you were Ranger's woman now and not The Cop's Bitch and they all backed off. Like pronto. The seedy side of Trenton could care less about the police but are terrified of Ranger.

"So Big D here thinks he's King Shit of Turd Island because he's out there in L.A. And doesn't know the lay of the land here. And he's not gonna sit around while his guys in Trenton are too scared to go after a little white chick because they are afraid of some dude named Manoso. It makes him look bad and messes with his power. I mean his men should be more afraid of what he'd do than of some guy he's never heard of before.

So to show he's serious he hires the best and craziest hit men he has under his control and just to make sure his men get the message, we hear the orders are to grab you and that Big D himself wants to do the honours. He is going to show everyone he isn't afraid of some Cuban dude. But big D isn't that bright and he's not done his research; he doesn't have the full picture, where it comes to you. I mean he could publicly put an end to you and all that but he'd pay the price for it. Probably very slowly and we'd wipe out the Slayers, which is our goal. But you would be dead so that's not an option we want to let him explore."

Yikes!

"So we obviously have to find these guys before he has the chance to realize how badly he's fucking up; which Ranger will do because that's what he does. Problem is, what do we do with them once we find them? We can kill them, arrest them, scare them shitless or all of the above.

"Killing them is permanent but the local constabulary would probably frown upon a sextuple homicide. We could make it look like it was gang related and even if TPD was willing to look the other way it would look fishy to the LAPD so we don't wanna go there, unless we really have to. If we arrest them then there is the possibility that Big D gets off or is able to call the shots from the inside. Either way you and Sally are still boned. Not to mention it doesn't really solve the problem. Taking out Big D probably won't put an end to the threat, it could just inspire retribution which means that we have a new problem to deal with.

Then there is scarring the pants off of them. We make it clear to them that it's a bad idea to mess with Stephanie Manoso. I personally think this is the best plan because if we get that message off loud and clear then hopefully two years from now this doesn't happen again.

Unfortunately I don't think it's going to be that easy and we might have to use a little bit of column A and a little of column B in order to achieve column C, hence D, all of the above," she said. She went back to reading and left me to compute that.

"I really hate column A," I said.  
"I hear ya. I almost never order off of column A anymore," Same bored tone of voice.

"You are really scary sometimes Tink," I paused, "I bet you could come up with an awesome Haunted house at Halloween."

"Yup."

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Morelli stood at the bar at Pino's waiting for his pizza when Meagan walked in and up to the bar. She placed an order for an obscene number of pizzas, he ordered her a Guinness and walked over to her.

"That's some serious comfort eating you are about to do. Did you and Santos have a fight?" He said.

She chuckled ruefully, "No," she gratefully took the beer, "He and Carlos are in Washington; hopefully just for the night. And when the cats away, the mice will consume massive amounts of grease, fat and carbohydrates."

The words were right the facial expression was right, her eyes were all wrong. They lacked their usual mischievous glint.

Joe snagged her elbow and gently lead her to a booth at the back. "Spill it Princess; what's eating you?"

She took a long pull on her beer, "I'm supposed to be inscrutable you know," she mumbled.  
"Maybe, but I've been shamelessly ogling you for a month and a half now. I'm picking up on the subtle nuances. Now talk." The smile was genuine this time if a little sad.

"I shouldn't have come back yet," she said, "I could have sent someone else to you and worked my contracts behind the scenes, but I missed New Jersey, and part of me was looking for a an innocent way to bump into Ranger. Like I said though, it was a mistake, and I think I'm going to have to renew my contract. I got a phone call five minutes after after Lester left this morning explaining to me just how valuable an asset I am. I was not so gently reminded that retiring wasn't in my best interest, but I'm done Joe. I really am. I need a long vacation where I don't wear four different guns just to feel safe walking out the door."

"So don't sign another contract."

"I wish it was that easy Joe." she gave up suppressing the emotions and her lip quivered. No point in trying if the man you are talking to can see through you anyway, "I'm trying to get some leverage that will get me out but it might not exist anymore and I put everyone in danger by coming back from the dead before I had all of my ducks in a row. Now Les and Carlos are in DC, and I can't reach them. I been in touch with my DC contacts, and they have no idea why you boys are there, and it's all I can do to not panic. Carlos said he was under orders and couldn't tell me why they were going but that he'd be able to explain when he got back. That makes me more nervous than you can possibly imagine. And then there is Lester…"

"What about him? Things looked pretty good between you."

"We were engaged when I died, and now that I'm back I don't know where we stand and I'm terrified to ask him. I'd marry him tomorrow if he asked me but what I did was awful. I had my reasons, but I know he's angry. I know he is.

Have you seen how slow Bobby's been moving lately? He's taking his aggression out on B, in the gym but he's refusing to talk about how he feels about it with me."

"I think, you need to rip that bandaid off Princess and just talk to him," Joe said, "I think the chances of him telling you to go fuck yourself are pretty slim. At worst he'll say that you need to date again for a little while to see if you were where you were three years ago. If he hasn't asked for the ring back though that's probably a pretty slim chance."

"He asked me what happened to it last night," she said quietly, "It's making me crazy. Oh Joe this is so fucked up." she looked, for the first time since he met her, helpless. For someone carrying four guns and capable of taking on every man in the bar single handedly, it was so out of character, that the cry for help he saw in her eyes nearly broke his heart.

He switched sides of the booth and pulled her into a hug that would probably start Burg tongues wagging. He didn't care. She was a friend in need and he didn't have answers but he could offer comfort. She didn't cry but her breathing was rapid as she tried to get it under control and she seemed to fold herself into the embrace as if hoping that somehow the hug could shield her from the shit storm that was her life; even if it was just for a little while.

He was staring out of the window over her head while she gathered herself and he froze. "Uh Princess, how do you feel about a little physical activity?"

"Joe," She said wryly, "While I appreciate the offer…"

He grinned and chuckled softly, "Isn't that Freddy Finch outside?"

He expected her head to snap up but she was too good for that. She waited a beat and calmly sat up and grabbed a cocktail napkin and blew her nose and then checked her makeup in the window of the bar.

"Yes; and right now I feel like beating the shit out of someone, so I hope he resists."

Joe texted a couple of the off duty cops at the bar and he kind of felt a little bad for Finch. This guy didn't know he was about to walk into the TPD watering hole, and there was a military trained human weapon drinking a beer and looking to violently blow off steam. Word went around the bar fast that one of the guys Morelli was after was about to walk in and he was assured that back up was at hand. "How do we want to play it?" He asked.

"I'm having a bad day and you are walking me to my car to make sure I am okay. Then you'll stand back unless I signal for help."

"Sounds good to me."

Joe looked out the window and it was the perfect scenario. Finch was admiring Meagan's car, lots of men did, because it was a man's car, or it would be if it weren't pink. Joe sent a text to let the rest of his backup in on Meagan's idea. Finch was going to find himself in a cell in short order. They didn't need to press actual charges, he had several federal warrants out for his arrest already and that meant Meagan had jurisdiction. They stepped out into the parking lot and he hugged her and whispered in her ear, "Are you carrying?" he knew she was but wanted confirmation.

"I make Rambo look like a pussy," She sniffed, "plus I am a weapon."  
He tilted her head back, "and again, Modest too," He repeated. She laughed ruefully. He kissed her forehead like they were just two friends saying goodbye at the end of a hard day.

He stepped into the shadows and she walked to the car. Finch either hadn't seen him or didn't care that he had been there. "Yo, your car for sale sweetheart?" Finch called when Meagan hit the fob to unlock her car. What only she knew was that Rangeman was also going to be listening in on this conversation. She'd hit her panic button. Tank would be sending backup too. Hopefully Bobby.

"No; she's my baby," Her voice was playful and deceptively innocent.

"Why? Do you like it? Most guys don't cuz of the colour."

She smiled and walked closer to Finch. He wasn't big, maybe 5'10 150 lbs but Morelli had read his file. He knew this guy was bad news. He liked knives a lot, and he especially, enjoyed carving things into the victims he let live. His favourite canvas being the face. Joe had his weapon drawn and he was just waiting for Meagan's signal.

He heard her sharp intake of breath and saw her register fake surprise at the flash of a knife blade, "Maybe you want to give me your keys."

She discretely gave Joe a signal to stand down, and he felt even worse for Finch. He wouldn't want to go hand to hand with Tink on a regular day, and he really wouldn't want to fight her seriously when she felt like hitting something.

She looked afraid. Except Joe had seen her shift her weight slightly, just like he'd seen Ranger do, just before he was about to strike.

"Actually sweetheart, I think I'll take you and the car. You look like you know how to have a good time." He grabbed her bicep.

"I've been having a really shitty day," She said with a new chill in her voice, and Joe took an involuntary step back. That sexy voice was oozing menace, and it caused his adrenaline to spike. Finch felt it too and he looked suddenly unsure of himself "So thank you for the threat, and the assault because things are now starting to look up."

"What do you mean?" Finch said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

Meagan was lightening quick. She punched him hard in the throat and then twisted out of his grasp while he was trying to breathe. As she turned she grabbed his wrist and used her momentum to twist his arm and then she brought her free hand down. There was a wet crunch and a strangled sound as Finch tried to scream. After that it took all of two seconds before Finch was down on the ground and cuffed.

"Damn, I was hoping for more of a fight; I guess that rep was all talk," she said. She knelt down with her knee on his back and removed all of his weapons. When she stood up there were about fifteen off duty cops in the parking lot, with guns drawn watching her, "Someone wanna call a bus? I think I broke his trachea…Oh and I know I broke his elbow."

Two large black SUVs pulled up and Bobby and Tank exited them at a run. Bobby knelt down beside Finch and started working on him while they waited for the ambulance.

"What'd he do to piss you off?" Tank asked mildly, as he hauled her to her feet.

"He tried to steal my car," she said, and ran a hand through her hair. Tank nodded like it was a perfectly acceptable reason to break someone's elbow, "Our pizzas are probably ready if you wanna go pay for them." Thank chuckled and pulled her into a one armed hug, and kissed the top of her head.

"Christ! I thought you drove a desk Harris?" One of the cops said.  
She shrugged, the twinkle was back in her black eyes, "Sometimes I get a little restless."


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: So here is a nice long chapter for you. It has some cheese in it but I figure with Tink over the top is kind of her thing so I rolled with it.**

Ranger hung up his cell phone and put it in his pocket. He looked at his cousin who was using this moment to draw upon an ability fall asleep instantly and nap anywhere. He was slouched down in his seat, arms folded across his chest, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. His sunglasses were on so to everyone else he just looked bored. Only his deep even breathing gave him away and well that was only noticeable if you were right beside him.

He needed it, he'd been up since yesterday at 0500. Ranger would have liked to send him home but he was needed here. Ranger shifted minutely; the closest he came to pacing impatiently. They'd been kept waiting. Not something he had time for. He nudged Santos, partly out of a childish impulse it irritate his way too relaxed cousin for sport, but mostly out of a need to covey some information.

"What?" He grumbled.

"Your girlfriend just put Finch in the hospital. He needs surgery." Ranger said. He kept the satisfaction out of his voice but the smirk on Lester's face let him know that he knew Ranger had enjoyed disturbing him and that payback was probably gonna happen.

"Perfect. What happened?" He asked like they were discussing the weather. He sat up and popped his sunglasses up on top of his head, instantly awake and wondering how he could use Stephanie to irritate Ranger.

"He made the mistake of trying to carjack her. He pulled a weapon, so she broke his elbow, his trachea and dislocated his shoulder when she disarmed him."

Santos winced, "Seems like overkill."

"She was having a bad day." They exchanged a grin and the receptionist that had been watching them discretely, fanned herself.

"She in trouble?" Lester asked.

"No, the whole thing was caught on camera and it happened outside of Pino's in front of a dozen or so off duty cops. I'd say she'll be fine with self defence. Finch said he was going to take the car and her because she looked like fun. Given his reputation, Morelli figures he deserved what he got."

"Where was Morelli when this went down?"

"In the lot with his gun drawn. She took Finch out too fast for anyone to do anything besides watch," Ranger said smirking. Santos laughed. The receptionist almost fell out of her chair. Too much sexy in front of her now that they weren't looking terrifying.  
"That's my girl; God I've missed her. You'd think it would bother me that my fiancée doesn't need me to protect her but it doesn't."

"Maybe not physically but you look after her in other ways."

"Yeah, speaking of that, she's not in a good place right now and most likely completely unspooling because you told her we were going to Washington. So tell me again what we are doing here a few days after I got her back?"

"Solving a problem."

"Thanks, that's really helpful primo," Lester said dryly.

Ranger said nothing. They were at the Pentagon waiting for a woman to show up and then they were going to meet with two Generals. The Generals weren't the problem, the woman was. He'd tracked her to a day spa and called her to explain the problem. She said she was leaving right away, and she was just going to go home to change and pick up a few things. That had been two hours ago. He checked his watch again when a tall blonde, former model,approached them, "You Ranger?" She asked.

"I am."

"This Santos?" A nod from both. She had the same conversational skills as most of his men. Ranger grinned internally, it would have driven Stephanie crazy. "I've heard a lot about you both. None of it good; which probably means you're both very good men," she said, and handed Lester a familiar ring box, "He told me the jewellery store screwed up the ring size and because they are eternity bands they couldn't be resized. Both rings are there." Santos opened the box. Sure enough Meagan's ring and the matching wedding band were there.  
She looked at Ranger, "Let's go nail the bastard."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

I was lying in bed awake because something had woken me up. I listened quietly for a few minutes and heard nothing so I nestled back into Ranger's embrace. It took a second and then my eyes flew opened and I sat up. "Ranger! I thought you were in DC for the night!"

"Mmmmm," he mumbled, still mostly asleep.

"When did you get back?"

"Half an hour ago; go back to sleep."

"Did your hear Meagan caught…"

"I did. We'll talk about it in the morning. I've been up for 23 hours; I'm tired."

"Joe said..." I didn't get to finish, as he yanked me back down to the mattress and pinned me.

"What did I tell you about saying his name in our bed?" Ranger growled sounding very awake all of the sudden. His mouth was on me, and he was being just aggressive enough to set my body on fire and make me completely forget what I was talking about. Sometimes a little competition is a very good thing.

Four hours later I sat at the breakfast bar eating waffles with Meagan; Ranger and Santos were still asleep. It was Saturday and technically we didn't have to work. We would still probably make an appearance downstairs, but for now at least we weren't in the office.

Ella brought the paper and handed it to Meagan who nodded thanks and opened it. Her black eyes went wide and her mouth fell opened "Shit! Fuck! Oh my God Shit!" Okay so she isn't always a girl Ranger. Sometimes she's just as spastic as me. Like now for instance. Her entire body was visibly tense. She whipped her phone out of her back pocket and hit a speed dial button and took off for Ranger's den so fast I half expected to see a Meagan shaped cloud of dust in the kitchen. I looked up at Ella who was staring where Meagan had been sitting with a look of complete shock on her face.

"What?"

"I've known her since she was 8 years old. I have never seen her do anything even remotely like that."

Ranger came out of the bedroom looking impossibly fresh after three hours of sleep and saw us staring at the spot where Meagan used to be.

"I take it she saw the paper," he said. It was more of a statement than a question. So I didn't bother to respond. He poured himself a cup of coffee. He dropped a kiss on my temple and took her seat and helped himself to Meagan's untouched toast.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"They are terminating her contract, with a nice bonus and an apology. In exchange, she is going to testify against General Humphries at his court marshal. She's also going to meet the President who will give her the Medal of Honour which, after seeing her service record yesterday, she has more than earned. She's not being told about it beforehand so keep it to yourself. The President is apparently talking about more medals but we'll see. The General who stole the rings set her up several times by forging presidential orders; he's going away for a long time and she will be allowed to retire with her full pension."

"Cool about the medals," I said. The concept of being retired before thirty was something that was blowing my mind. Knowing Meagan she wasn't going to be playing canasta anytime soon though.

"Babe the Medal of Honour is a huge deal. Only something like a little over 3400 have ever been awarded. Think about the size of the armed forces and the fact that they started awarding it during the civil war and the fact that almost half of them were awarded during the civil war..."

Holy shit so it's a really big deal.

"Do you have one?" I asked. Ranger shook his head no.

"She's done some pretty incredible shit over the last three years. It's no wonder she's burnt out though. No down time at all. I thought Lester was going to kill that bastard when he saw what she'd been ordered to do since we saw her last. I don't know how she's alive. We saw the pictures of her injuries right after he back was scarred, she shouldn't have lived. She had a severe infection, was massively dehydrated, and had several fractured ribs, and serious sunburns. According to the pilot who dropped her off, she was a three day walk from the army hospital she turned up at. She was barely stable when Humphries gave her, her next orders. That's when our former handlers stepped in, and had her transferred to DC. When we searched Humphries place last night we found orders for deployment dated for today."

"She's feisty."

"That's one word for it." He chuckled and poured himself a glass of fruit juice.  
"So what does it mean for her? The medal I mean."  
"It means she's getting recognition for what she's done. All of it highly classified. She'll get a ton of respect for it and it will go a long way to restoring her confidence."

I almost choked on my coffee, "She has a confidence issue?!"

"Babe, she asked me yesterday if I thought that Lester hated her for what she did."

And I snorted my coffee again, "You have got to be kidding?"

"Nope."  
Fuck. Lester looks at her like she hung the moon. There is no way that man hates her.

"I know you probably can't answer this but what exactly did she do on the mission where she supposedly died?" I asked.

Ranger stared at me for a long time; I was getting used to his blank faces and I was starting to be able to read them. This one was not telling me to back off, it was more like he was trying to decide what he could say.

"It can't leave this room and parts of it will be vague," He warned. I nodded enthusiastically at possibly getting a Ranger story. He half smiled at me and tugged a curl playfully, "We were in South America. She was able to...uh... Convince the son of someone not very nice to give us some information we needed. She not only got the information but she made him think it would be a good idea to be a regular informant. That was supposed to be it, an then we were supposed to get out of there. We were about to ship out and it had been days since Tink had slept for more than a few minutes here and there. She does that; she'll gets focused and she'll refuse to sleep. She'll go until she literally collapses, and sleeps for days. Even before she met him, she used to sleep in Lester's room when she had leave. My aunt Mira changed the drapes in his room to black out curtains. Meagan would come home, eat her weight in whatever Tia Mira put in front of her and then she would go to Lester's room, because it was the quietest in the house and she would sleep until they woke her up to feed her again. Usually 18 hours later."

"Before she met him?"

He chuckled again, "It's complicated but yeah."

"I'll want that story," I told him and he smirked.

"Of that I have no doubt Babe. Anyway the fact that she was exhausted is the only explanation we can think of that explains why she didn't see through Humphries. She was tired. She wasn't thinking straight when Humphries showed up. He told us the intel wasn't good enough, and we needed physical evidence. Considering the mission had been to capture the son and do exactly what we did this was a bit of a surprise.

We were given new orders; I was to recapture our new informant and I was to escort him stateside. I argued this with Humphries, and he said the orders came from the President; I didn't have much choice. She was to get into the compound, copy the contents of a hard drive and get out. Where I should have been was watching her back. A point I argued strenuously, but Humphries said he had a better idea; Santos and Brown were to watch her position and provide sniper cover for her. They were told that their position would give them full coverage of the office so that if someone came upon her position they could take them out. If she went in alone she could get out easier. She's like smoke when she needs to be."

I smiled at that. That's what most people said about Ranger.

"Why her? Why not you? Wouldn't she have been the better escort, if she was the one to convince him to work for you in the first place?"

"You're right but she was set up remember? The General said that it was because she could hack into the computer. Which is true; she knows what she's doing because Hector was her college room mate and he taught her some tricks. If she couldn't get in, she would give Hector access. That little piece of information doesn't leave this room; she could get into serious trouble if anyone found out that's how she was always able to get around every system." I mimed locking my lips closed with a key and he thought about smiling.

"From what I understand she was able to get in and into the system and make the copy. Santos said their position was crap; they could see the computer and that's it. They were going to go find a better vantage point when they saw her get spooked. They saw commotion in the window below her and then they saw her shove the USB into her top and raise her hands. That's when Santos got shot in the back. Bobby reacted and took out the two militia that had been given their position. When he turned back Tink was gone and Santos was bleeding out. The rest you know."

"Where was Tank?"

"Behind a desk," Ranger said with disgust, "Like I said, she was set up. Bobby and Les couldn't do anything from their vantage point; Tank, who should have gone in my place, was behind a desk and I was babysitting someone who didn't need babysitting. As soon as we found out the op had failed we were told to let our informant go because he would be more useful on the street."

"And that's when you had to fight to go looking for her."

"That was more Santos than me. He was channeling his girlfriend when he threatened Humphries. He was half dead and shouldn't have been a physical threat but he was anyway and he reminded Humphries that he was one of the best snipers in the world. I just made sure Humphries was paying attention."

"I don't know if I want to know how you did that."

"Most likely not."

"Wow Ranger, I think that's the most words I have ever heard you use at one time." I teased because I had no idea what else to say to that.

He looked like he might be thinking about smiling. "Babe, I've only told you what I can. It's what I always do; it's just that most of the time what I can tell you is nothing at all. Some of what I have told you may end up in the newspapers because it turns out the orders were falsified.

Humphries told the President that Bobby, Santos and Meagan acted of their own accord. He claimed that they were convinced they'd found something huge and were going after it and that Humphries hadn't okayed the mission.  
He was the one who suggested that Tink being presumed dead was a good thing. She was a fairly well known agent; if it got out that the Pixie was dead, they might be able to use her in places they couldn't anymore. On paper it was a great plan. She was unmarried and had no living family."

"Why would she agree to that? She was supposed to marry Santos. She was supposed to be here when you started the company. She had a life and she wanted out."

"Extortion, and that's all I can tell you. He found her biggest weakness and he exploited it. He just didn't realize how connected she was, or that sashed would be lot more difficult to kill than he thought she would be. She played her own game back at him, kept his focus on her instead of on her weakness. He could threaten her all he wanted but she fought right back without him even realizing it. Giving her time to figure out what she had on him. That ring made it possible to bring him in on a felony theft charge. She was keeping it from us but he was applying pressure, she was going to have to re-up in a few days and he would have reassigned her to some hell hole. You took that pressure away Babe."

The phone rang and Ranger reached across the counter to answer it. He grunted in the affirmative a few times and hung up.

"You really need to work on your phone manners."

"I've used enough words today. If I talk anymore I am going to get laryngitis." Ranger humour everybody.

A few minutes later Santos came into the apartment and Ranger did a head jerk towards the office. Santos didn't say anything and walked to the den. When he went in Meagan was still on the phone. I saw her look up and walk into his embrace, he held her and kicked the door closed again.

"She's been afraid and he's been grieving for three years," Ranger said, "I think I might give them our tickets to Fiji when this is all over."

RSRSRSRRSRSRSRSRS

Meagan hung up the phone, "It's over," she said, looking up at Lester, her black eyes bright. "They want me to bring the thumb drive to DC so they can analyze it and press further charges against Humpfried. My contract has been terminated; I get to keep my FBI credentials and TPD has made a request that I continue to work with them on a part time basis until the Slayer issue is cleared up. I've agreed but I am on permanent loan to Rangeman who will be in charge of my salary. I have the option to leave the FBI whenever I want and I'm getting a massive bonus. I think they are afraid that I am going to write a book or something and are trying to buy me off. Guess what? I can be bought."

He laughed, "I know; I was there."

He was in on the negotiations for her compensation. The President had been woken up with the news of Humphries arrest and was given the files pertaining to Meagan. An aide of Humphries' who was in love with her, had been gathering copies of everything, including several falsified or forged order Humphries had given her. He was just sitting on it waiting for Meagan to tell him it was safe to use it.

Humphries had been smart in the way he'd set her up. Nearly every mission was sanctioned, he rarely sent her on something illegal; what he did do was send her in without backup, or cover of any kind. He'd limit her intel, usually only giving her the mission objective. She'd gather her own intel, come up with her own plans and carry out the missions.

She never refused an order he gave her but she fought back every time he tried to hurt one of her men. She'd use her contacts and fly over his head, pissing him off and redrawing his focus back on her. He was slowly trying to wear her down and Meagan refused to lose at anything. This was no different for her than playing an extremely strenuous game of chess against a man she thought of as an idiot.  
Upon reading the body of work she'd done, solo, the President insisted on meeting her and when Humphries' Aide demanded that she get recognition for her work the President brought up the Medal of Honour.

"When do you go to DC?" Lester asked, hoping it wouldn't be for a while.

"They are sending a helicopter to pick me up in three hours. Apparently the President wants to speak to me."

He tried to mask his disappointment but he was dealing with the master here, "Oh and did I mention I'm to bring a date? Know anyone who might be interested?" She asked innocently.

He hugged her again. "How long will we be gone for?"

"24 hours. I hate leaving Steph and Carlos like this and I made it clear that I was needed here. The President is insisting so I don't have much choice."

"I'll tell Ranger. You go pack."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Green was always a mistake. Not that it looked bad with her colouring it just played up her resemblance to her nickname. The First Lady had chosen the dress so she couldn't say no. She also sent a hair stylist to the hotel and she was now wearing her hair in an elaborate braid that had been twisted into a knot at the nape of her neck. Lester had taken one look at Meagan in the dress deemed her beautiful and had left.

She was now standing in front of a full length mirror in their suite at the Watergate, in a one shouldered pale green cocktail dress with an asymmetric skirt and six inch silver Manolo Blahnik slides. Apparently the First Lady had a sense of humour. The dress while formal was definitely a nod to her nickname. Lester entered the room and smiled, she was stunning.

Lester Santos in his dress uniform was more than stunning he was decadent, and she grinned as she blatantly checked him out in their reflection. "You need something," he said critically, "This look isn't quite finished." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pink and orange sapphire and white diamond choker. The sapphires were round with smaller rectangular diamonds in between each sapphire.

"You are just way over the top you know that?"

Then he held up the garment bag containing her uniform. She looked at him with a question in her eyes.

"This was dropped off. You have to wear this first and then change into that after you meet with the President." She nodded.

She'd been surprised by the dress, she wasn't retired yet, class As were required for trips to the White House so the dress delivery had been unexpected. She had him unzip her and he grinned when he saw the hot pink lace underwear. Not standard issue. She dressed efficiently, her shoes had been provided by Ella. Custom made soft Italian leather shoes that fit Meagan perfectly.

Once she was ready he sat down on the bed and patted his knee. She sat down on his lap. She smiled at him but she could tell that he was agitated. She stroked the back of his neck, a touch that normally soothed him, it didn't work this time and suddenly she felt nervous.

"Meagan, I was thinking today; three years is a long time. Things change..." She stopped breathing and her heart stuttered, she was searching his face, all she saw was the agitation, everything else was carefully blank.

She willed her eyes not to fill with tears. He's alive and safe because of you. If he decides to end this now, stay with the FBI and burry yourself in work. Ranger will understand.

"I'm pretty sure I know how you feel about me. I just don't want to make assumptions," He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket, "So I'm doing this again. Meagan Harris, will you marry me?"

This time she couldn't stop the tears and she flung her arms around his neck and hugged him as hard as she could. "Is that a yes?" He laughed she nodded not trusting her voice. He put the ring on her shaky hand and then kissed her. "Baby why are you crying?"

"I thought you were breaking up with me," she laughed shakily.

"You are insane Gorgeous," he held her tighter.

"Oh there's no doubt about that."

"I love you too much Meagan." He pulled back so he could see her face. He traced her lower lip with his thumb before he kissed her. The kiss quickly became heated and her jacket was about to hit the floor when they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Can we just skip it? I have a cold." She mumbled against his lips.

"It's the President. You are being ordered to the White House by our Commander in Chief, and they are throwing a reception in your honour. As much as I admire the sentiment Gorgeous you kind of have to be there."

"Damn." She slumped her shoulders dramatically and he grinned and kissed her hair. She stood up and straightened her uniform.  
"Let's get this over with," she said.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Lester was distracted and was watching her across the room. She was chatting with the First Lady and they were talking like they were old friends. The First Lady was admiring her engagement ring and Meagan was laughing. To anyone else watching they would swear that she was completely at ease. She was graceful and laughing easily, but Santos could tell that she was nervous, her posture was too perfect. It was her tell. She had a few but this was one only he knew of. She didn't even know about it. Her smile was genuine though so he knew she wasn't in need of moral support. Meagan caught him looking and she winked at him cheekily and continued chatting. He couldn't help smiling back at her. The choker he bought earlier was in his pocket, replaced by her Medal of Honour.

He was so proud of her. He couldn't believe she'd done half of the things in her file. Her ceremony had been private, like the reception. Agency Directors and their wives, The Joint Chiefs, senior staff and a few military personnel and that was it. They lined the walls of the Oval Office. Meagan, used to being around power didn't do the Presidential flame out, she'd been poised and charmed the President to the point that he'd declared her trouble and she hit him with the same cheeky grin she'd just aimed at Lester, and a bat of her eyelashes.

Generals Vadrine and Frakes, the men who had been her handlers up until her death, had presented her with the Army Cross. She'd also been given a Purple Heart for the injuries she'd sustained from the IED.

Then the President started reading off the list of her achievements and acts of valour over the last three years. He spoke for twenty minutes and then presented her with her Medal of Honour. When she was saluted by all military in the room the tears did fall. Vadrine and Frakes had filled in the role of father since she was 18. There was nobody she respected more, and it was their obvious pride in her that caused her to crack.

The ceremony over, the President ushered her towards the terrace, she would be getting changed in the residence at the insistence of the First Lady. She exited the office to find that the terrace had been lined with junior staffers and any military that had been present on the building. The military men and women snapped to attention and saluted. The junior staffers applauded. She had recovered some of her composure by that point and was beaming as she shook hands.

After that he didn't see her until she met him outside of reception dressed in her cocktail dress. She apologized for not wearing the necklace.

"Baby, I knew you were getting the medal; that's why I bought you this." He produced the bracelet that went with the choker and attached it to her wrist. She kissed him and wiped the lipstick from his lips before they were announced. There was more applause, more salutes. She wasn't used to praise and she'd beamed and fought another onslaught of tears.

Now she was less emotional, more relaxed. The women she was speaking to kept glancing at Lester who was only half paying attention to the conversation the Generals were having. He was used to women looking but it was starting to get awkward. All of these women were married and their husband's were extremely powerful men who could make his life hell. He didn't really want their attention.

"You set the bar high Lieutenant Colonel," a voice with a slight southern drawl said behind him. Lester turned to face the speaker, "Half of the women in this room are jealous because they want to be in her tiny shoes. The rest are wishing their husbands would come to you for pointers. Don't think for a minute that bracelet went unnoticed; my secretary saw you give it to her outside and she spread the story like wild fire. You're killing us son."

Santos chuckled, "Yes Sir."

"You waited for her for three years after you were told she was dead because you refused to believe it? That's one hell of a romantic story son. I think my wife is in love with you."  
"Well sir to be honest Meagan did let me know she had survived the mission." He told him about the charm bracelet.

"Great. Now I have to tell my wife that part. Makes it worse for the rest of us."

Santos chuckled again, "Yes Sir."

"Have you set a date yet? I'm expecting to be on the guest list."

"Of course sir. No we haven't set a date. I lost three years with her sir; we'd like to get married as soon as possible but it may take some time."

"Why's that?"

"Red tape." He said. This was a surreal conversation. He had a feeling it was about to get weirder.

"Oh?" Yup. Weirder.

"Legally she's still dead sir. All of her ID is for her alias as Meagan Harris and 4 days from now that Meagan Harris will no longer exist. We have to resurrect the Meagan Harris she was before she died and according to our lawyers that might take some time."

"Let's do something about that."

"Sir you don't have to. We're..."

"Nonsense. Did you nod off during that ceremony? We owe her one. Hell more than one." He waved to get someone's attention, "Tommy! Come here please I have a job for you," The President called.

Tommy, aka the Attorney General and the President discussed the dilemma. The First Lady was called over and consulted. A plan was made and staff got on phones.

"Colonel Harris, may I speak to you please?" The President asked.  
"Of course Sir." She approached and stood beside Lester. Lester put his arm around her and kissed her temple. Her posture relaxed and he stifled a smug smile.

"I'd like you to be our guest here tonight. I'll have someone go to your hotel room to collect your things," The President said.

"Sir?"

"Humour me."

"Yes Sir."

RSRSRSRSRS

Ranger's phone rang while we were eating breakfast. "Yo."

He listened for a bit. He took a sip of coffee, his eyes went wide and he swallowed painfully, "Well that's a new one." He listened some more, "it's not like I would say no man." He laughed, "I can do that. She's already pissed at me anyway... Does she have her cell phone on her? Good luck man. Take pictures."

He hung up and dialled a number. I was now dying of curiosity. "Yo. I'm to tell you that this whole thing is surreal and if you want to put it off he will understand but he personally can't wait." He said something in Spanish, his voice tender. He listened for a bit and hung up.  
He dialled again, "You're good to go." He hung up. He dialled yet again and started speaking Spanish. He winced and then spoke some more. Then he started laughing and hung up.

"What's going on? Please tell me what's going on. Puh-lease." I begged. Anything that could make Ranger react like that had to be a good story. I was praying it wasn't classified.

"Lester just asked me to call Abuela Rosa and tell her that he and Meagan are getting married in about ten minutes. The President is his best man, Lester's brother was flown in and he's giving Meagan away and the First Lady is acting as matron of honour. He wanted me to break the news to Abuela Rosa that yet another one of her grandsons has eloped."

Yup. Good story.

RSRSRSRSSRRS

"Hey Princess! How's Washington is everything okay?" Joe asked.

She'd texted him to let him know she was leaving but couldn't say why. When he saw her number on the call display he'd snatched his phone up so quickly Eddie thought he was going to break it. Joe listened stunned while she chattered in his ear for five minutes. When she was done he burst out laughing, "You don't do anything small do you Princess?" He waited and listened, "Stop. I can't believe you are calling me about that; let me worry about Finch for the rest of the day. He's still in the hospital anyway." He waited a few more minutes and frowned "Are you sure? Thanks. When? Uhh yeah I think we can do that. Hey I wish I had seen it! I hope there are pictures. Congratulations Princess." He disconnected.

"What's up with Princess?" Gazzara asked. TPD had adopted Morelli's nickname for her after the incident in the parking lot. Half of the force was utterly devoted to her after that little display.

"She got married twenty minutes ago at the White House, in the Oval Office. It was going to be in the Rose Garden but it was raining," Joe said. Gazzara choked on his doughnut and Joe patted his back, "But wait it gets better. The President was Lester's best man. Apparently there was a reception for her last night for something she can't talk about. Santos mentioned that they wanted to get married but there were issues; the President said that if he got to be Lester's Best Man, he would make the issues disappear. Her wedding guests included: the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Chiefs of staff of the Army and the Airforce and the Directors of the FBI and CIA."

"Jesus Christ."

"They all just happened to be in the building for meetings and the President called them all in."

"And after all of that she called you about Finch?" Eddie asked incredulously. "She's either a workaholic or she has a thing for you and Santos better watch out."

"You obviously haven't seen her with Santos," Joe said grinning. "You know how Meagan says that the D in Big D stands for 'Dumb Ass'?"

"Yeah?"

"He was driving to Jersey from L.A. and got tired somewhere around Salt Lake. He decided that there was no chance the cops would be looking for him in Utah, and he was picked up a few hours ago trying to board a plane to Newark. They are bringing him to us for questioning."

"Hey at least he still got to fly here."

RSRSRSRSRSRS  
Meagan sat down in the interrogation room with an exasperated sigh and put her feet up on the table. She didn't even look at the man in front of her she just picked up her iPad. There were several cameras in the room; she'd made note of them and chose to sit at an angle that made it possible to see what was going on on her iPad by looking at one of the tv screens in the observation room.

"Shit she's playing Angry Birds," Joe said as we watched from the other room. He was smiling, "you realize we are watching a highly sought after interrogation expert and she is playing Angry Birds? Badly. She's a genius and a world class strategist how can she be this bad?" We watched her for about five minutes when Joe let out a frustrated sigh and sent her a text message. She held up a hand like "oh of course" tapped her screen a couple of times and messaged him back. He laughed under his breath and I sent him a questioning look.

"She was stuck on the level. I told her where to aim the red bird. It was driving me nuts watching her do that a million times," Joe said. She moved on to Facebook next.

"Wow for a dead chick she has a lot of friends," I noted, he nodded. "Does she look bored to you?"

"Nope. She looks like she's having fun. Meagan bored is irritating; worse than you actually."

"Hey!"

"She hums annoying songs that shouldn't be hummed ever and then I spend half my day trying to figure out what she's humming, when I should be thinking about more important things. The other day it was Blurred Lines."

"Sure it's a little over played but she has a beautiful voice and it's a good song."

"Hum it."

I tried it. I annoyed myself. "I'm sorry! That's horrible! Though I think I am going to try that on Ranger the next time he refuses to talk on a stakeout."

"He doesn't talk on stakeouts? He just sits there silent for hours? That's worse than humming."

"The man is a machine," I said.

"TMI Cupcake," he said wryly, "Oh here we go she's put her iPad down."

Megan stood up, walked over to Big D, and unlocked the cuffs securing him to the table. Joe frowned but didn't say anything. Big D's legs were still shackled to the floor but at least this way he would be more comfortable. She went back to her seat, and sat down with a graceful flop.

"You know what would be cool?" She asked as she put her feet back on the table.

"I don't talk to snatch," Big D said. Big D lived up to his name. He was huge, at least as big as Tank and Meagan looked like a toy sitting across from him. She was relaxed though, dressed in Jeans and a t-shirt, and completely unconcerned with his size. She'd come directly from the airport to interrogate him. Directors orders. She wasn't to be on the sidelines for this one.

"Good because that would be a complete waste of time. If you are going to bother getting up close and personal with snatch, there are waaaay better things you should be doing with your tongue," she said with a casual disinterest.

I was glad the observation room was soundproofed and he couldn't see us because Joe and I both cracked up. The only reason I was there was because I was asked to drop off Meagan's iPad so she had her notes on Big D and she invited me to watch.

"I can't believe she just said that," Joe said as he wiped tears from his eyes. Probably he was glad this interrogation was being recorded because he had missed a few minutes of it trying to compose himself. She was trading extremely crude one liners with Big D and Joe was having a hard time keeping it together. I thought I was gonna pee myself.

"What should I be calling you? Big D is too, I dunno, weird for me and I doubt you want me to call you..." she flipped through her notes and made a face, "Gilbert? Really?"

He laughed, "Bitch you lookin' at the wrong file, my name is Anthony they call me big D because I have a..."  
"Yeah I know," She held up a hand with a chuckle, "I've heard tell. I was just messing with my colleagues behind the glass." She waved at us, "See the thing is Big D, I need you to tell me where to find the guys you hired and call them off."

"I don't know what you are talking about sweetheart; I'm just here to visit some family."

"Of course you are; for Thanksgiving no doubt."

"That's right."

"Hey do you mind if I take your picture with this?" she held up her iPad.

"What? You want something to keep you warm at night sweetheart?"

"You know I do. I like big men and I know that this is a big waste of time. I just need to kill some time here so my boss thinks that I have been doing my job. Angry Birds is pissing me off and I'm all caught up on Facebook so I thought we could chat. It doesn't have to be about this if it's not going to get me anywhere."

He grinned and she snapped a picture of him. "I'm glad you see my point. You know you're alright for a Bitch Cop."

She shrugged, "I am. To be honest with you I'm out of here in a week. I kind of roughed someone up that I shouldn't have. Instead of having my back and putting up the blue wall they are giving me a pink slip so I'm not exactly motivated if you get me."

He barked out a laugh, "Little thing like you roughed someone up? Tell me another one."

She grinned, "I'm feisty. So anyways, like I said, I'm just you know, killing time." She ran her hand through her hair and Joe checked something on his phone and dialled. Meagan let it ring for a bit and she theatrically rolled her eyes.

"Yes?" She sounded bored. Joe grinned.

"Hey Meagan. Rangers are up 2-1 in the second."

"Keep me updated. Why don't you go get some food? This isn't going anywhere," Joe hung up his phone.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"Hockey score. That's what that hair flip meant; she wanted me to call her with the score." Joe said.

"Why? I mean I know she likes hockey but she has to have a reason."

"I'm sure we'll find out."

"Baby what the hell was that ringtone?" Big D asked, looking insulted, "I thought you were cool. That was just wrong."

"What? You don't like Britney Spears? She's fun to dance to."

"You ain't dancin with the right guys if you think you need to shake your fine ass to that crap. Gimme your phone; I'll show you some real music." She handed him her phone and he punched something in and handed it back to her. She entered her password and downloaded the song. "That's my brother, he does something you can dance to. That's real music." She hit play on her phone and some house music started blaring out of the small speakers.

"This is a weird interrogation," I said to Joe, "What is she doing? Establishing a good rapport with him?"

"I have no idea what she's doing," he said, "Director of the FBI and my Chief both said to let her play. Whatever that means. So that's what I'm doing. She needs a new phone, the sound is terrible."

"I'm a little white girl from New Hampshire I don't know how to dance to this," she said, with a chuckle, and then she thought about it, "Nobody's watching. Why don't you show me?"

"You got it girl come here," he said, and stood up, beckoning her over; she walked around the table.

"Can you do it while still shackled to the floor?"

"I can make do sweetheart," he said. Big D put a massive paw on the small of her back, and he led her in a slow grind against him. She turned her back to him, and his hand slid to her hip, and the dancing definitely had the potential to get seriously indecent. When D's hand slid her shirt up, exposing a diamond stud, in her belly button, Joe called her again. She turned so she was facing him, a smile on her lips as her eyes strayed to his. She picked up her phone and put on a show of reluctantly backing away from him, as she answered Joe's call.

"What's up?" She asked. Her voice deeper, seductive even. Her eyes never leaving Big D's.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing special. Just you know, conducting an interrogation."

"It looks like you are doing your damnedest to get Lester Jealous."

"Are you kidding? I'm just turning him on," she winked at D, "Shit, he's coming now? Okay thanks for the heads up." She looked at Big D.

"Sorry, that was my partner, probably the only one in this damned building who has my back. I have to cuff you again, my boss is coming. He thinks that you are going to hurt me, here, in the middle of the police department, while shackled to the floor." She rolled her eyes, "I don't really want to get yelled at with a week left you know what I'm sayin'?" he shrugged and he helped her cuff himself to the table.

She sat back down in her seat and looked bored. She flipped through Big D's file some more. About fifteen minutes later, her email pinged and she grinned. She stood up and put her hair in a ponytail. Joe and I shifted forward. Hello Tink.

Until then, she'd looked relaxed, the atmosphere, almost pleasant, but with her hair tied back, it was like when she bound her hair, in the conference room. She was gorgeous, no doubt, and there was definitely serious sex appeal with her hair off of her face. But she no longer looked playful, and there was no longer any doubt that she had roughed someone up.

She looked utterly heartless; she looked like she was about to enjoy herself and it wasn't going to be fun for Big D. He pulled at the cuffs and she calmly tightened them with one hand, and perched on the table next to him. We were all thinking the same thing; What the hell was in that email?

"So Big D, here's where thing stand with us, I keep my job if I get you to talk. Now, the reason they are even letting me in here, is because, I can look very innocent and timid if necessary, no jury ever believes anyone when someone claims I've gotten a little rough. I just cry and say self defence. They alway believe me, now, there are cameras everywhere, but have you ever seen one of these things?" she held up a little grey box, and D's eyes snapped up to her face. As she put on a pair of rubber gloves, and wiped the box clean. She pressed a button, "Damn, looks like the cameras have gone out, now," she leant forward, getting close, "Why are you here D?"

She slammed her hand down on one of his wrists, and put the device in his hands. Her voice was deeper, but instead of being warmer it was ice cool. Her eyes were hard; her movements more fluid, the image of self control. She calmly slipped the box out from his hands, now with his fingerprints, nicely on it, and she slipped it into his pocket.

"I told you I'm here for Thanksgiving," he said. Though he didn't sound nearly as sure of himself as he had, "How many strikes do you have against you?"

"You sure that's why you're here?" She asked, ignoring the question.

"Yeah, bitch," he said, she raised an eyebrow, "Who are you?"

She chuckled, and leant forward, and whispered in his ear. He jerked his hands in his cuffs trying to get away. She straightened, her smile a little smug, as she carefully spun her iPad to face him. "Let's start here shall we?"

She had completely avoided the cameras so we couldn't see it on the monitors either. She scrolled through whatever was on her iPad, "I'd hate for these to get leaked to your second in command. I mean it might make things tricky for you in LA. A guy with your reputation. This would look pretty bad."

Big D slammed his fists on the table and tried to stand up. He was shackled firmly in place. She walked around and stood behind him and whispered something else in his ear and he blanched. She walked around the table again and sat down.

"So Big D, what do you say? The woman you want to take out, is under my protection. You might want to start talking, or this is just the beginning of how things are going to get bad for you."

"I can't call off the hits," he said. "It would be as bad for me as..as..that." He pointed to the iPad.

"Uh huh. That's true but you have bigger problems. First of all there's what I just showed you, second, you are probably going to prison. I wonder how that stuff would go over in prison?" She closed the program on her iPad and put it down on the table. She was quiet for a few minutes. When she spoke again you had to strain to hear it. "I want to know where these guys are staying. I want them off the street and I want you to contact your second and I want you to tell him that it's not worth it here. Tell him that the guys here are weak. If you have to send more people out here it will be strategically bad for you out West."

"What's in it for me?"

"That never goes public and if you are found guilty I'll see to it you end up doing time in the prison of your choosing. Not one dominated by a rival gang, who I guarantee will get that information if you don't co-operate. I mean the man who sent it to me isn't exactly the most ethical if you know what I am saying? And I think you know who I'm talking about. You know he'll do it."

"How do I know you are telling the truth?" she grinned and walked around the table and whispered again, her smile was sadistic. He blanched further and, she looked like she actually was enjoying what she was doing.

"Start talking D," she said. She pressed the button that killed our audio. I guess she didn't think we were going to like what he was going to say.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Okay Meagan what the hell was that?" Joe demanded when she walked out of the interrogation room.

"I did my job. I did nothing illegal. I used some information that came into my possession in order to make a deal. Whether or not the information was accurate doesn't really matter does it?" she said and she grabbed a drink of water from the fridge in the break room. "I killed your audio because I didn't want Steph to hear the gory details. He was pissed and trying to shock me and I wanted to sensor it a bit. There are some things she just doesn't need in her head. Watch the video later Joe if you want to hear it all," Joe nodded.

"Between the task force, the FBI, and Rangeman we should be able to round these guys up. It turns out that our real problem isn't Big D. It's Terrance Brown, brother of Eugene Brown, an old friend of Stephanie's. Big D told him to stay in Cali and that Steph was going to be a gift for him. Terrance disobeyed the order and Big D has no idea where he is."

"Shit, that's not good," Joe said. You think? Eugene was the whole reason this was an issue at all. I'd run him over, and he wasn't pleased about that. The last time I saw him, he was about to rape me, until I relocated his nuts, into his stomach. Then Sally mowed him down with his bus, or maybe his Uzi, I couldn't remember which. I didn't think Terrance was going to be all that predisposed to liking me.

"He's apparently twice as crazy as Eugene and he told my pal D, that he had something pretty big and twisted in mind for Stephanie."

"Shit," my voice came out really small. When it went down, I was mostly just mad, so I was taken aback by what the nightmares afterwards. My mind kept cycling through all the what ifs, and now someone wanted to do something worse to me, than what was going to happen in that circle? I saw spots flash before my eyes, and Joe pushed me down into a chair, and forced my head between my knees. Meagan put the water bottle on the back of my neck, and crouched down in front of me, "It's going to be okay Steph. Tank is on his way here to pick us up, and for now we're going back to Rangeman, and we'll stay there for the night. After that, I'm in charge of your protection, which means, you don't go anywhere without me. And Steph? the only way they hurt you, is if they take me out completely, and I'm fucking hard to kill."

RSRSRSRSRS

Cal, Hal, Hector and Vince sat in the conference room at Rangeman watching the feed on the big screen. Tink had given Hector access to the CCTV in the interrogation room and they had full audio. Ranger and Tank were watching the men react to Tink in action. So far it had been same old same old; she had been sitting there waiting out Big D. Lester and Bobby walked in, "What are we watching?" Lester looked at the screen and frowned, "She's actually in the room?"

"Director's orders," Tank said.

"He knows she prefers to..?" Bobby started but Tank held up his hand to stop him.

"Unfortunately we are on borrowed time and she is the best," Tank said. Hector had a laptop in front of him with a photo editing program open.

"I haven't seen her work in a while; do you know what her plan is?" Santos asked.

Ranger nodded and told Lester, in Spanish, her plan of attack. Hal, Cal and Vince didn't speak Spanish and Ranger wanted them paying close attention. They were here to see why Tink got paid the big bucks.

"I don't know if you want to watch, she said it could get.. interesting. You know how she can get. Are you going to be able to handle it?" Tank said. Lester grinned.

"It wouldn't be the first time and I don't think she'll lose sleep over this one so it should be fun... Is she playing Angry Birds?"

"Yeah and she fucking sucks at it," Tank said, "Are you sure she's a sniper? How can she be this bad? Aim the red bird at the bottom fucking log!" A few minutes later they saw the text on the screen and she aimed the red bird at the bottom fucking log.

"Remind me to send Morelli a thank you note," Ranger said.

She finally started talking to Big D a little after that. The first part of the interview drew general laughter. She was very funny; charm and disarm. Even Ranger laughed a couple of times. When she asked D to dance Hector sat forward in his seat. He was receiving a direct feed of her dancing with D on his laptop. It was a different angle than the CCTV feed. He took a few screen shots of the two of them grinding and then cut Big D out of the pictures. He quickly superimposed them onto pictures Hector had taken of some men dancing in a gay bar. All of the pictures obscured the other dancer's faces and any identifying features but they showed Big D getting indecent on the dance floor with several different men. He emailed Tink the pictures.

"Shit those pictures will get him killed," Vince said. Ranger nodded; That was the point. She might as well have held a gun to Big D's head in there. They watched the screen in disbelief as he helped her re-cuff him. They watched the whole interview after that point with complete awe. At first his answers were hostile, and he was answering her questions with as much graphic detail as he could. He told her what each hit man was famous for and it was sickening but informative. She was completely blank faced for it; dhe'd seen and been through worse. When he was done she spun her iPad and deleted a picture.

His head snapped up, "I have the only unsecured copies; keep talking."

She prompted him here and there but he told her everything she wanted to know. She deleted picture after picture and kept only one and stood up. "Wait Sweetheart; they aren't your real problem."

He answered her questions for fifteen more minutes and then she stood. She deleted the last picture and she wrapped up.

"Wait for it..." Lester said as she went to the door, and the junior team members looked at him.

Big D mumbled something almost inaudibly and Meagan patted him on the shoulder and walked out of the interrogation room.

"Did he just thank her for helping him?" Vince asked, completely stunned.

"That's my girl," Lester said.

"She's fucking scary," Vince said.

"She's not done yet," Ranger said.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Meagan showed me what was on her iPad when we got into the car, "Joe wouldn't like this," She said,"It's not really classified; I just didn't feel like dealing with him when he lost his cool."

"I thought you deleted them?"

"No, he just thought I did," she said, "I just moved them to a secured folder that I named Trash Can. Joe's damn near a luddite he wouldn't know the difference and D was too stressed by the pictures to pay attention to what I was doing. "

"Sneaky. Ohmigod these are pictures from a gay bar Hector and I went to a month ago!" I said. "You photoshopped him into them!"

"I did no such thing. If however someone else did and emailed them to me and I used them before I had a chance to verify them… well oops!"

"But it's a lie; he's probably never been to that bar and..."

"Actually it looks a lot like a bar I've been to in LA. Why do you think he didn't deny the veracity of those pictures?"

"Ohmigod he's actually gay?!" Meagan nodded and looked out the window. "You used his sexuality against him."

"He's Bi actually. And of course I did, and I'm not even going to lose sleep over it and neither should you. The man is implicated in several violent crimes, including rape and murder. He chose men who get off on torture and disfiguration to bring you in. And he was going to hand you over to someone who wants to do things to you that nearly turned my stomach. While I don't give a shit where he puts his dick as long as it's consensual, his men do. Street gangs aren't exactly known for their tolerance. Now D knows I know and he knows I'm willing to spill the beans if it means protecting you."

"And if the leads don't pan out and he's lied to you?"

"Then those pictures find their way to his second and Big D learns what happens when you fuck with me."


	7. Chapter 7

_**AN: Thank you again for reading! I like writing Tink's character, so I am glad other people like her too! Nothing major has changed in this chapter, again, just cleaning things up. **_

Meagan went straight to her apartment when we got back to Haywood. She looked tired. I guess it had been an interesting kind of day. Hell she had just gotten married this morning and then boarded a plane back here and walked straight into interrogation. I don't think anyone knew about it besides Ranger, Joe and I. If what I understand is true she hates interrogations, but damn she is good at them. A little unorthodox but he thanked her after she threatened him.

I walked into the conference room where the guys were sitting around the table, Santos wasn't looking very happy for a guy who had only been married for about 6 hours. "What's going on?" I asked.

Santos' head snapped around, "Where is she?" He demanded.  
"She went up to your apartment." I said. Santos looked to Ranger.  
Ranger nodded, "Go. She's going to have a long night; she'll need you."

"I don't like it man, I fucking hate this shit! You know she hates this shit; you know what it does to her."

"I know. This was the deal Lester and she agreed to it. She does this and she gets to call the shots for both the FBI and TPD on the Slayers situation. She's been butting heads with the director of the field office and we don't want to run the risk of his sexism getting in the way of putting an end to this. It was her idea. We don't want anyone else in charge." Ranger said.

"She hasn't slept in a while."

"I know; I'll be watching her back."

Santos stormed out.

"What's going on?"

"Tink is going to Stark Street to introduce herself to Trenton. In exchange for being given complete control of this operation she has agreed to help The New Jersey office with a completely different problem. She's going to convince someone to turn informant for them," Rangers said darkly.  
"She's going to Stark street at night by herself?!"  
"No,Tank and I will be going with her. We have a redecorating job we need to do and some skips to pick up. One of them being the guy she is going to have a chat with."

"Ranger. Is this a good idea? I mean she just did an interrogation that she..."  
"Bombshell, what you saw was nothing. She's fine." Tank cut me off, "It's important that she gets out there. It's one thing for her to have a reputation in here but if she's going to be able to intimidate as a bodyguard she needs to make an impression. She will have fun. That's not what he's pissed about."

"What's he pissed about?"

"She's been asked to turn Alexander Ramos against his family."  
"There is no way that's going to happen." I said. He was the head of his Family with a capital 'F' but he was starting to step back and let the next generation take over. Ranger and I knew him personally, "I mean not in a million years is she going to turn him against his Family."

"She will," Ranger said, "She's never failed to turn someone yet."

"Why? Why is she doing this?" I asked, "It had better not be for me; There has to be a better way."

"There isn't. This was the deal she made. If she does this for the Feds she gets to run the show as far as the Slayers go and she is given a great deal of leeway. If this works then that's it. That's the end of the Slayers. You don't have to worry about them again, and you get one more buffer from the usual hoods on Stark Street."

"When we are talking persuasion are we talking torture?" I asked, "He's an old man."

"No, she doesn't do that unless really provoked," Tank said, "It's not her style."

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Meagan was gearing up when Lester walked in to their apartment. "Does it have to be tonight?" He asked as he watched her strap a gun to her thigh. Her hands were slightly shaky from exhaustion.

"It does. Timing is crucial. TPD and the FBI are co-ordinating right now to go after the four remaining hit men in the morning. We have confirmation on their whereabouts. Once they find out that Big D and Finch are in custody they are going scatter. We need to put on a show tonight so I have more clout in the interrogation room. I want them to hear about me before we bring them in. I want them scared. I need to establish a reputation tonight so I'm letting the Pixie out to play," she chuckled, "It would be easier if we were dealing with The Princes... But we aren't. So I have to get out there."

"Then if it's happening in the morning you should be here sleeping. I know you haven't been sleeping much, late night recreational activities aside. You are tired. Get Bobby to give you something, sleep tonight. You don't need to have a reputation to get people to talk. You know you don't."

"I slept great last night Lester. I am fine." It was a lie. He knew it and she knew he knew. She said it reflexively. She'd lied about her level of exhaustion many times. With a mind as active as hers she was no stranger to insomnia. "You know me. I can't sleep while I am this close to finishing a mission or in this instance, a case."

"And Ramos? Have you got a plan for him?"

"Don't need one," she grinned, "I met him in Italy on a beach. He knew who I was Les. He walked up to me and he actually said, 'well if it isn't the Pixie, I thought you were dead.' We started talking and he said that if he shared information with a dead woman then it wasn't snitching. He has already told me everything they are looking for. I kept it to myself. He wants to be an informant, he's already been mine since Ranger was framed a couple of years ago, in fact it's why he sought me out. He's been feeding me information about the crime families since then. I was talking to him just last week. The plan is for me to pick him up as an FTA on a small charge. I bring him in, he answers our questions about his family and we let him go again."

"Does Ranger know this?" Santos asked.

"You are the only person besides me that knows this," she said.

"Tink, Meagan, you should be telling Ranger."

"I can't. I made a deal with Ramos," she said.

"Why are you telling me then?" She kissed him on the cheek.

"Because you are worried about me. You are the only one who knows what this sort of thing really does to me. I don't need you pissed off at Ranger all night for no reason if we need backup. We will be back here a little after midnight. Please wait up. It is technically our wedding night."

He folded her into his arms and held her. He was basically only hugging her head and shoulders their size difference was so great. He let her go and walked over to her jewelry box on the dresser and pulled out her charm bracelet. He attached it to her wrist, "Go kick some ass Mrs. Santos." She stood on her toes and kissed him and walked out.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

He was six feet easy. She had a foot on his throat and he was clutching his arm. She hadn't broken anything this time. She just made him wish she had. Ranger and Tank stood back looking amused.

"So what was that you wanted to do to me?" She asked. He looked terrified. That might have been because she was aiming a gun where his nuts used to be before she had kicked them up into his stomach. Ranger had serious doubts that this guy was ever going to be sexually active again.

"You know Tink, we don't have papers to arrest this guy,"Tank said, while picking some dirt out from under his nails.

"That's a bummer. He probably shouldn't have tried to rape me."

"Tink I don't think that's gonna fly. He grabbed you, said he was going to fuck you until you screamed and then you made him cry like a little baby. Hell your hair isn't even messed up,"Tank said evenly. This was their third apprehension of the night. The guy on the floor wasn't the skip. He was a friend of the skip and he had taken offence to his buddy being arrested. He tried to hold a gun to her head and it hadn't gone well for him.

The Pixie, Ranger, and Tank were out to play. Just like old times. So far her introduction was going well. "Let him go Tink. He's not going to be going after any other women for a while. You kicked him so hard I almost threw up," Ranger said. She sighed theatrically and took her foot off of his throat. She took a step back and the idiot, that's the only way to describe this guy, pulled a knife out of his pocket and tried to jab it in her leg. She saw him reach. She disarmed him and gave him a solid kick in the kidneys. This time the idiot did throw up and Tank was sure this guy was going to be pissing blood for the next little while.

"See now you are just pissing me off." She aimed her gun at him and shot a hole in the floor right beside his shoulder. He screamed and wet himself.

"Feel better now?" Ranger asked mildly.

"Yes. Much." She said. She took her knife and dug the slug out of the floor. She looked down at the idiot, "Are you done yet or do you have anymore tricks up your sleeves?"

"Nope. I'm done,"he groaned.

"No what?"

"No ma'am."

"Alright then. Now apologize to the nice men over there for messing with their schedules."

"Sorry sirs."

"Good boy." she patted him on the cheek. He flinched and they walked out of the room.

They made it out to the car before they started laughing. "I can't believe you made him apologize," Tank choked out.

"Hey, he'll remember me," she said with a shrug that set both her partners off again.

The night had been successful. By the time they finished the redecorating job people were running not only when they saw Tank and Ranger but when they saw her as well. Tank and Ranger were scary because they were fast, huge and dangerous. She was insane and fought dirty. Hopefully word about their little adventures this evening would reach the LA contingent by morning. Now all they had to do was go pick up Ramos.

Tank and Ranger went in to do the actual apprehension. She waited by the car, she'd removed visible weapons, let her hair down and pulled her rings out of one of the many zip pockets in her cargos and put them on. Ramos came quietly and when he saw her at the car he beamed, "Special Agent Harris! Are you moonlighting as a Bounty Hunter?"

Tank and Ranger exchanged a glance.

"No I am kind of a free agent at the moment," she said. He raised an eyebrow and she helped him into the back of the Explorer. She joined him there and once they were out of sight of the house she kissed his cheek, "How's it going Alex?" she asked.

"I'm well Miss Harris. Ahh but I see not Miss Harris anymore. Did you marry your young man then?"

"Yes. This morning in fact. Would you like to see a picture?" Tank started and smiled broadly. He glanced at Ranger, the corners of his mouth were tipped up. They hadn't exactly told everyone at Rangeman yet and Ranger made Stephanie promise to keep it to herself. Now Tank was wondering if the proposal at Versailles had been bumped to fourth place.

"I would love to sweetheart," Ramos said. She showed him a picture of her and Santos in front of one of the windows in the Oval Office. It wasn't readily apparent where they were standing so it wouldn't cause awkward questions. He was wearing his uniform and she was wearing an actual wedding dress that she was frankly still amazed about.

They had woken up a bridal shop owner and told them the situation and Meagan's size. The owner sent over a selection of dresses and gowns that would fit Meagan and they had collectively chosen a gorgeous lace mid calf length dress with three quarter length lace sleeves and a champagne belt that combined with the full tule skirt made her waist look impossibly small. The dress required only minor alterations to be perfect and they were able to do the alterations that night. "I wish I had known you were getting married! I would have come to your wedding."

"Well Alex they kind of sprung it on me or I would have invited you," she said with real affection. He was a charming man. "Now you are sure you want to do this for me?"

"Can you still be my contact?"

"I've made arrangements for it so yes."

"Then yes. I'll do this. You have to do it quickly. My nephew wants to rebond me in the morning. As far as he knows this is a pain in the ass charge and you have no reason to keep me longer than it would take for the courts to open."

"My boss just has a few questions about some military assault weapons that have disappeared from the base. You shouldn't even be up too late."

"Okay Chickie, for you, as a wedding present, I will do this thing. Now that you are no longer a Fed it should make it less suspicious for me to contact you. I would like to invite you and your new husband over for dinner sometime soon," he said.

"I don't know how Lester will feel about that Alex but maybe you could take me shoe shopping again like you promised? The last pair you bought me finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I have been looking for a new pair since then. I lived in those heels and they never made my back hurt."

They had arrived at the station and she took off his cuffs.

"It's a date Beautiful but I need you to do me a favour."

"What's that?"

"Go home! This is your wedding night! You should be with your husband and not in a smelly police station asking a dirty old man questions!" he admonished. She kissed his cheek again. He patted hers. "You look tired Meagan, promise me you will get some sleep. Don't make me lock you in a bedroom in my villa again."

Her lips twitched, "You know that was kidnapping you just confessed to?"

"Chickie you refused to sleep; I call it a humanitarian effort. The world doesn't need a grumpy Pixie let loose on it. You had a nice bed and a very nice lasagna and a pretty decent bottle of wine; it wasn't exactly Sing Sing. If I remember correctly you slept for 12 hours and were a much better person for it," he said and she burst out laughing, "Now go home."

"I will. I promise. My friend Joe Morelli will be the one asking you questions. He's a good man and he knows to call me if there are any problems; ok? I shouldn't be seen bringing you into the station." He nodded.

Tank and Ranger brought Alex in and she waited in the car looking at the wedding pictures on her phone. She couldn't believe that she was married just that morning. Two weeks ago she was wondering if she was ever going to see him again and now they were married and a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. The Santos clan were demanding that she and Lester make their way to Miami as soon as this problem was wrapped up. This time next week she hoped to be stretched out on a beach soaking up the sun without a care in the world.

She thought about the little house they owned that they kept hidden from everyone. She hadn't been offline, really offline, in almost four years. Maybe after the Santos clan had been satisfied with her return she could convince Lester to take her away. A month with nobody able to call them. No knocks on the door in the middle of the night getting her up, no helicopters landing on the roof to take her away at a moments notice.

She waited patiently for Tank and Ranger to come back. She wasn't entirely sure what their reactions would be. Either pissed because they had been worried or amused that she had turned Ramos into an informant simply by being his friend. Frankly she didn't care what they were thinking. She had her reasons and they would have to live with them either way.

She closed her eyes, aware of everything that was going on around her but just resting. She would not be involved in the arrests tomorrow. She would be going in in the afternoon to handle the interrogations. Hopefully someone, somewhere had a line on Brown. The more she read about him the worse he seemed. She yawned enormously and laughed to herself. It had been one hell of a wedding day.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"You're back already?" I asked as Ranger walked into our bedroom. It was a little after midnight and I honestly wasn't expecting to see him until tomorrow after lunch. "She finished already?"

"She was done by the time we got to the station. She knew him; he buys her shoes. He's been her informant ever since you met him. She met him on a beach in Italy and he knew who she was; they hit it off and apparently once a year he buys her a bunch of shoes because he likes her legs and thinks she has nice feet. The only condition he has is that she gets pedicures at least once a week so they are always nice when he sees them."

"You are kidding me."

"Babe." Okay this is utterly unbelievable.

"Are you mad at her?" I asked.

"No. I'm a bit pissed that she didn't tell me that she had already turned him but I understand her reasons."

He ran his hand over his face. He looked tired. "I"m going to shower. If you want to keep talking you should join me; otherwise we'll continue this at breakfast. When I am clean I am going to sleep," he said.

"If I follow you into the shower will there actually be talking?" I asked looking at him as he started shucking his clothes. His utility belt hit the floor with a thud. He gave me a look. The way his pupils dilated and the way he almost smiled told me that there would probably be no talking in the shower. I was out of bed like a shot and naked before my feet hit the floor. Ranger chuckled and followed me into the bathroom.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Mom...mom...MOM!" I gave up. She was in full Burg mom mode. Ranger and I needed to have a reception apparently. She had been speaking to Ranger's grandmother and found out about Lester and Meagan and they had decided between them that we would have a double reception for us.

"Stephanie I have seen the dress that Meagan wore and it's perfectly acceptable. She will wear it again at the reception; your dress was lovely but it's too informal and you need something else. Now I have shown Betty, Meagan's dress, and she said she has a few things for you to try on that will make you just as pretty as she will be for pictures." I rolled my eyes. What my mother was really saying is that Meagan's dress was gorgeous and mine was slutty.

"We don't even know if they want to have a formal reception. What if we just want to have a barbecue?"

"Don't be silly, it's November dear. Now I was thinking that the Saturday after Thanksgiving would be perfect because everyone will be in town. I want you and Meagan to come over for dinner tonight; Your father will be taking Ranger out for supper so we can have the house to ourselves, for planning," she said.

"Mom I don't think today is going to work. Meagan has four interrogations to run and Ranger is assisting TPD in arresting a bunch of hit men. They can't spare the bodyguards to take me to your place for dinner. Can't we just postpone until after this is all over?"

"No. I was only able to get the hall on short notice because Mrs. Frankle's daughter had her baby early and they had to cancel the hall because it was too late for the baby shower. I was able to get a good rate because..." I checked out then. There was no way to get her to stop. I sat there thunking my head against the counter when Meagan strolled in dressed in dark jeans and an oversized black sweatshirt that probably belonged to Lester. She hitched it up on her shoulder and made a gimme motion with her hand.

"Hi Mrs. Plum! It's Meagan!" She put the phone down on the counter and poured herself a coffee. She picked it up again, "uh huh." She put it down again and took a few sips. I can't believe I never thought of doing this! She picked it up again, "you know what Mrs. Plum I have to run. My pager just went off and I need this phone to return the call. Well because it's secure ma'am. Uh… I think 10:00 should be fine and I'll get back to you about dinner. If we can't then breakfast tomorrow should be fine."

She hung up, "Quick turn your cell phone off." I did as I was told. "There it will go straight to voicemail and she'll think your phone is dead." She fished out her own phone and sent Ranger a text message telling him to call the apartment and not my cell if he wanted me.

"Pager? Who uses pagers?"

"Your mom probably doesn't know they are obsolete. I figured it was the easiest way to get her off of the phone."

"Where are we going at 10:00?"

"To try on acceptable dresses for you to wear to our reception," she said, "Just how short was that skirt? Your mom is scandalized. Lemme see." I went and got it out of the closet. "Oh I like. Your legs would look fantastic in isn't at all trashy; I've worn much shorter skirts." I didn't know how that was possible without actually being naked, so I took her word for it.

"It wasn't the length of the skirt so much as the backless nature of the dress combined with the short skirt."

"Good for Vegas not so good for the Burg," she said. She finished her coffee and grabbed another one, "God I hate this shit. Unfortunately I don't think tea is going to cut it today, and I hate energy drinks more than coffee." She took another sip and grimaced, "So here's the deal; normally I'd say stay inside until these idiots are rounded up, but we don't want them to know we are on to them so it has to look like business as usual. We're kind of short today so it's just you and me. I want to go over some procedures with you okay?" I was just happy to be getting out of the apartment.

"We're gonna take Ranger's Porsche; it's recognizably his car and nobody local is going to go after you if they think you are with him. We will go straight to the bridal shop and go straight inside. I will be coming in the change room with you to zip and whatnot. I don't trust anybody but myself for this job; I don't want you out of my sight. Lula is going to be watching the street while you change. Once we have your dress we will leave. If anything happens you do exactly what I say without question."

I nodded again. I was in no hurry to be kidnapped. I've done it enough times to know how much it sucks.

"Oh, leave your rings at home. If something happens and they do get us you don't want them to steal them," she got up, "we roll in twenty minutes. Meet you downstairs."

I took off my rings and called Ranger. Not surprisingly it went straight to voicemail. I left him a message telling him where we were going and what we were doing and that I had left my rings home under orders. I went to jump in the shower and the phone rang.

"Babe, do everything she tells you to do," he said and I heard a grunt and then some swearing, neither of which came from Ranger.

"I will. Where are you right now?"

"I'm cuffing someone at the moment. He's resisting."

"Should I let you go?" I heard a muffled "Stay!" And then a groan. The stay was him, the groan was not.  
"No I'm good. One of the punks has already given us a bead on Brown. You still aren't safe until we are sure it's him but I am fine with you going out with Tink. Take your gun."

"Will do."

"I loaded it this morning; the only way I want those bullets to come out of it.."

"Are of I am emptying my clip into someone?"

"You got it Babe. Be careful, I love you. - I said stay!" There was a thump, a crunch and then "gotta go babe." And he disconnected.  
He said our life together wouldn't be normal.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"What about this one?" My mom held up what had to be the largest collection of lace and taffeta in the world. The sleeves made the ones on Princess Diana's gown look like they could have used some volume.

"Mom, I'm not walking down the aisle. I'm already married, and it's not 1985! I want something simple and easy to dance in," I said for probably the 57th time in twenty minutes. I was getting a migraine and Meagan was having too much fun with this. I think the bridal shop my mom picked hadn't updated their stock since the mid 80's.

My mom handed me a different dress and shoved me into the change room. Meagan was trying hard not to laugh as she zipped me into the dress. She lost the battle when she looked at me. "Ohmigod it's a satin mullet!" I glared at her, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she gasped, "How did she find this place?" The dress, from the waist up actually wasn't bad, it had lace sleeves and a sweetheart neckline like all dresses from the 80's, and there was no pouf at the shoulders; it was actually sort of flattering. The whole thing fell apart below the waist. The dress was shorter than my Vegas dress in front and had a massive train in the back. Like floor length with a 4 foot train. It was actually a mullet wedding dress.

"I can't deal anymore," I whined, "This place is horrible."

"No problem," she said through her gales of laughter, "We'll go to New York tomorrow and find something at Saks or Barney's. Let's get you out of this before I wet myself laughing."

She got me out of the dress and ushered me back out to the main salon, "Sorry Mrs. Plum, we couldn't get the zipper up on the last one and we have to go. I just got a call from the station saying they need me early and I have to get Stephanie back to Rangeman before I can go," she lied smoothly and I resisted the urge to bow to her skills of parental manipulation.

"But what about getting a dress? I won't be able to get an appointment tomorrow!" my mother was about to start the guilt trip when Meagan cut her off.

"My personal shopper at Saks has already said he would squeeze us in. I've sent him her dress size and a picture, he's pulling stuff for us as we speak," she said soothingly, "We'll go to NYC after breakfast tomorrow if that's alright?"

"Oh I guess that's fine then. So you won't be able to make it to dinner tonight?"

"No I'm sorry."

"Okay then, see you later dear. You too Stephanie," she turned to Lula, "Bridesmaids do you think?"

"Oh hells yes!" She shouted and made for a traffic cone orange pile of velvet. I shuddered.

We got back out onto the street and into Ranger's car. I waited until she was out of the lot before I spoke. "Okay, what just happened?"

"What do you mean? You wanted out of there and I got you out."

"Nothing humiliating happened, nobody but you got to see me in an ugly dress, I got out of dinner at my parents and we are going shopping in New York tomorrow."

"That sounds about right," she said as she glanced into the rear view mirror.

"Well normally something crazy happens like my grandmother makes a shocking comment, Lula demands food, my mother badgers me, and I get all flustered and rip a dress," I said.

"I take my body guard duties seriously. That includes saving you from your own family."

"Can you just follow me everywhere I go?" I asked. She smiled and looked in the rearview mirror, again.

"Steph, I want you to get the gun out of the drawer under your seat and hand it to me. Then I want you to hit your panic button," she said this almost like she was asking if I could give her a Tic Tac. I grabbed the gun and hit my panic button before I even realized what she was asking me to do. She checked the gun, and let it rest on her lap, "Hang on," she said.

Meagan shifted gears and shot through the yellow at the intersection. She swerved into the lane of oncoming traffic to get around a slower moving vehicle and slid in front of it to the sound of the horns of about fifteen pissed of New Jersey drivers.

"Holy shit! Fuck! What are you doing?!" I shrieked and clutched the holy shit handle.

"Oh just trying to lose our tail, it's not working yet. I need to get out of this traffic or he's going to catch us. Fuck I hate driving this car. Why the hell doesn't he buy something mid engined so I don't keep having to fight it. Precision instrument my ass." She shifted again and shot through a red, "Fuck he's still there. Hang on Steph."

My life was flashing before my eyes. She was driving the shit out of Ranger's car, cursing it to hell and back and was in complete control but I was scared shitless. Saying hang on was redundant. My nails were going to leave a permanent imprint on the seat leather.

She cranked the wheel suddenly to the left and I felt the car go up on two wheels as it took the corner, she slowed, which I thought was crazy and then she slammed on the breaks and spun the car around and shot back down the street the way we had come. If she kept driving like this I was going to throw up.

"Get down Steph!" She yelled just as the back window shattered. I hit the deck and the car swerved violently as she lost control when a bullet went through her arm. There was an explosion as the airbags deployed and the world went black.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

I opened my eyes and shook my head. "Well shit," I said.

It pretty much summed up how I felt about things as I took stock of the situation. I was tied up and sitting on the floor in a warehouse. Story of my life. The good news was that I was still wearing my batman necklace. The bad news was that I wasn't wearing much else. My bra and underwear seemed to be in tact so I was taking that as good news. I looked over and saw Meagan slumped against a post unconscious. I scootched over to her and nudged her. She was in a similar state of undress and was also tied up. I nudged her again with my foot. Her arm was bleeding and she looked pale.

She woke up. "Fucking Porsche. Wouldn't have happened in an Audi or a Ferrari. Stupid unbalanced rear engined super car."

"Would your Mustang have been better?"

"Of course not. It's American it corners like a cruise ship." She looked around, "Anything you can tell me that's good news?"

"I have my panic button on still."

"Sweet. They won't be far away." She wiggled a bit and got her hands under her ass and then she got them out in front of her. "Amateurs," she grumbled as she untied her feet. She came over to me and freed my feet and hands and I untied her. She broke off her bra strap and had me use it as a tourniquet on her arm. She winced as I tied it but then was all business, "Okay so listen, Brown is a freak. He wants you to be afraid: so he's going to keep us here for a few hours. Get us all cold and vulnerable feeling, and then he's gonna come in and torture one of us, probably me first, while the other watches. That's how he gets his rocks off. He liked to give his real victim a preview of what's in store for them. So in theory we have time to wait for our men but I don't know how long we were out for because he took my phone, the fucking bastard. And since I don't want to risk being tortured, cause I've done that before and you know what? It kinda blows. We are going to have to be self rescuing princesses." She looked at me, "I hope you aren't shy; we don't have time to look for our clothes."

"Meh, I've been through worse," I said. Then I actually checked out her underwear, "Wow!" Yeah her underwear was obviously designed to cause heart failure. It was lime green lace that had cut always on her hips that made everything look fantastic. When she turned around I nearly had a hot flash. There was a strategically placed cut out on her ass. Yowsa.

"Yeah, I don't want to talk about it; I wasn't expecting a public viewing or I'd have worn briefs that my ass didn't hang out of. The only reason I have them on in the first place is because I wanted to fuck with Lester's head."

Meagan was acting like this whole thing was an inconvenience to her and not some terrifying situation. Her irritation had made me bypass panic and fear and move straight on to pissed off. It was a useful place to be.

She looked around and picked up a piece of the rope that had been used to tie us. It was the only thing in the warehouse besides some gravel and a puddle of some unidentified liquid. She grabbed a handful of gravel and dirt and made a ball of mud and packed it tight. She took the roped and tied an elaborate knot around it and rolled it in the puddle and then on the ground. She tossed it to me. It was a heavy rope ball about the size of a baseball.

"It's the best I can do for a weapon right now and we need the other rope to get out of here. I don't think we are going get out doors that easily."

Considering they looked like they were wired to do something loud if we tried to open them, I figured she was right. She looked up to the windows about ten feet above us. They were big enough for us to get through if we could just get up to them. They were about four feet high and ran the length of the building. "Let me stand on your shoulders. All I need to do is be able to reach the ledge and I'll be able to hoist myself up." I looked at her dubiously and she ignored me. She took the rope from me, it was about a quarter inch in diameter and he used lots to tie us up; we had about 30 feet of it if we tied it all together. She quickly did just that and then coiled it and slung it over her good shoulder.

I crouched down and she sat on my shoulders like we were going to chicken fight. Once I was on my feet she stood up; for someone as dainty as she was she was certainly heavy. I only felt the strain on my shoulders for a second as she grabbed the ledge and pulled herself up.

"Can you hotwire a car?" She panted.

"No."

"Okay so I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there is a car in the lot. The bad news is that I can probably get you up here and back down there but it's a longer drop to the ground and we are going to have to jump the last 6ish feet."

"Better than waiting around in here."

She nodded in agreement.

She wrapped the rope around a pipe a couple of times for leverage and then tied a harness in one end and lowered it to me. I slipped my legs through the loops and she pulled me up until I could reach the ledge and was able to help her hoist me the rest of the way. "Do you have the monkey's fist?" She panted. I knew the gun shot wound had to hurt but she was ignoring it. Her heavy breathing the only concession she was willing to give to her pain.

"The what?"

"The knot I tied."

"Oh that's what it's called? Cool!" I handed it to her and she used it to break the window. She cut a bit off the tail off of monkey's fist off using a shard of glass and used it to wrap around one end of the shard to make a handle for the shiv. "Now we have two weapons; things are looking up!" Her hand was bleeding quite badly from the glass, she had reopened the wound on her arm and we were mostly naked but if she wanted to believe things were looking up, I wasn't going to say anything. She took the rope off of the pipe and coiled it again and handed it to me.

She stepped out onto the ledge and motioned for me to stay put. She walked around the outside edge and broke another section of the window so that the glass shattered inside. She edged herself inside and said, "we'll go down here. I don't want to jump onto glass. Last thing we need are a million painful lacerations on our feet and legs while we are trying to escape." She took the rope from me and tied it off on the same pipe but closer to our exit.

I went down first. The harness was still tied in the rope so I stood in one of the loops and she lowered me most of the way with our weapons. I tossed the shiv before I jumped so I didn't accidentally stab myself and then untied the harness so she had more rope to work with on her climb down. As I picked up our shiv, she rappelled down the wall like it was nothing and that her hand and arm were in no way killing her at the moment. She looked awful though, and her, breathing was really labored.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Steph, I've been trying to keep myself angry to keep my adrenaline up but it is going to wear off soon and I've lost enough blood that I'm not doing so well. I am going to lose consciousness; I'm fighting it but it's going to happen," said as she started to shake. "You are going to have to drive; get us to the nearest phone that you think is safe and call Ranger."

"Hey I've got my bat signal going; they should be here soon anyways right?"

"Yeah. Sure. Maybe. The fact is they should already be here; something has gone wrong. Maybe it got damaged during the crash; it doesn't matter anyway, we have to move." We ran to the car and she smashed open a back window and leaned around to unlock the front door. She quickly hot wired the car and got into the passengers seat. That's when we heard the first gunshot. The second one tore through the tissue between her shoulder and chest and we took cover. "If he grabs you, hit him in the throat as hard as you can," she gasped, "then run like hell." And she passed out.

"This is New Jersey Meagan, fuck that," I said. I popped my head over the dash and saw who I could only assume was Brown coming towards us with his gun drawn. He was aiming for Meagan and not me; I pushed her down onto the floor and put the car in gear. I aimed it at him and floored it, bouncing him off the hood. I threw the car into reverse and backed over him once more just to be sure, and took off. I rounded the corner and saw an army of black SUV's. I hit the breaks and t-boned one of the SUVs. There were no airbags this time, and my seatbelt dug into me as it engaged, that was going to leave a mark. Meagan didn't look alive, and I jumped out of the car. "Bobby! I need Bobby!" I yelled, "Meagan's been shot twice! We had nothing to stop the bleeding with!"

Ranger, Bobby and Santos came charging out from around the vehicles. Ranger pulled off his windbreaker and wrapped it around me and dragged me over to one of the cars and cranked the heat while Lester and Bobby went to Meagan. "Babe, give me that you don't need it anymore." I didn't realize I was still holding the glass; I let it go and he wrapped me in his arms.

Then I heard Santos pleading, "No no no no no Baby stay with me. Don't do this. I just got you back. Open those Beautiful eyes Gorgeous. Meagan come on!"

"Shit. Lester back off and let me work on her," Bobby ordered as he shoved Lester to the side. I looked up at the sounds of a medivac helicopter coming in to land. The percussive whomp whomp of the chopper blades wasn't enough to cover the note of anguish in Bobby's voice when he yelled, "Shit! If you die on me again Meagan I'll never forgive you."


	8. Chapter 8

_**AN: So any medical stuff is basically what I could get from WebMD and stuff I've accumulated from TV. So not terribly accurate probably. But hey making shit up is why writing is fun! Enjoy! Don't own anything, just Tink and the plot. Thank you for reading and for your kind reviews!**_

We were all crammed in a waiting room at St. Francis, and by all I mean it was like Rangeman had emptied out and it was standing room only in the waiting room. A friend at the hospital had given me her street clothes to wear and for once I wasn't the one hurt. The only one not there was Lester, because Bobby had slipped Santos a sedative and he was resting. This is a gentle way of saying he stabbed him in the ass with a syringe of knock out drugs. Apparently the last time he thought he lost her Lester had been out of control and they wanted him well and truly sedated if the news wasn't good.

Meagan was barely alive by the time the medivac arrived; heart had stopped twice in the Helicopter but Bobby had been able to get it started again. She had woken up as they were landing, apologizing and and asking for Lester before as they rushed her into surgery. They had given her blood and got the bleeding under control but the bullet had ricocheted off of a bone and collapsed her lung. It was touch and go for a while but she was out of surgery and the prognosis looked good. We were just waiting for her to wake up.

Ranger was handling his family in the cafeteria. They descended en masse when they found out that she had been alive all this time and was now in the hospital with two gunshot wounds. They were full of questions and he and Tank were fielding them as best they could.

Lester's mother had yet to stop crying and the last I saw, Ranger was holding her while his uncle was sitting with his heavily sedated son. Julio, a surgeon, had driven in from New York to observe the lengthy surgery and was sitting with her in recovery. I had an army of black surrounding me and we were all very quiet.

Joe came into the waiting room and sat down beside me, "Want to tell me what happened?" he asked, "We found Brown in the lot of the warehouse. He's not dead but he probably wishes he was. He won't walk again." I told him how it all went down. Trying not dwell on the fact that I'd now run over three different men in three different Buicks.

"I don't know why all of this happened?" I said when I was done, "I hit the panic button as soon as she noticed the tail. How come it took them so long to find us?"

"Apparently a contract worker, who is going to wish he had never been born, fucked up," Bobby said. "You hit the panic button and instead of telling us about it, he figured it had to have been an accident since your tracker was with Meagan's in Ranger's Porsche. He shut off the alarm and made a note without calling to see if everything was all right. We didn't know there was a problem until Ranger asked for a report when we got back to Rangeman and were told that there had been a glitch. He's been fired and will never work in this business again. I think Ranger said something about making sure he understood precisely what the consequences were for ignoring SOPs."

"Just let me be a part of his instruction." Joe said. I looked at him, "What? She's my partner and I like you a little."

A doctor came out and spoke to Bobby, "She's awake and asking for her husband, I understand you sedated him?"

"We thought it best in the event that she didn't make it so we could restrain him when he got the news," Bobby said.

"She's been asking for Mrs. Manoso."

"That sounds so weird," Joe said under his breath and I sent him a death glare and he took a step back. I had been through enough today; I didn't want to hear him dissing Ranger. "Sorry Cupcake, it's just going to take some getting used to."

I followed the doctor. I had been to the hospital enough times that I knew where the ICU was and that's where Meagan was being held for the night. When the doctor turned left when he should have turned right my spidey sense went off and I hit my panic button for the second time that day. I tried to do what Meagan had done and attempted to summon up irritation at the situation instead of panic. It wasn't working. I guess I had already gone through my stores of grace under pressure today. I looked down and realized that the doctor was wearing CAT boots. Yup this is bad.

"Hey uh doc? How long is Meagan going to have to be in the hospital for? We are supposed to have a joint wedding reception in a couple of weeks and I need to know if I need to postpone." I allowed myself to fall out of step with the doctor so that I was slightly behind him. I was ready to bolt if I needed to.

"She should be out of here in no time; it was just a flesh wound." Okay yeah not her doctor. We paused at the stairwell entrance, "We should take the stairs, the elevator is out of order on this side of the hospital."

That was so not going to happen. At my hesitation he reached behind him and I saw the stun gun so I did exactly what Meagan told me to do. I reached up and punched him in the throat as hard as I could. He made a choking sound and stumbled backwards through the door way. I gave him a shove and he tagged me with his stun gun on the way down. There was a sizzle and then it was lights out.

Fuck!

RSRSRSRSRSR  
"Hey Babe, wake up," Ranger's voice was encouraging me out of the darkness. That wasn't a voice promising morning sex; it was the voice he used when he wanted me to go to the gym. Fuck that! I needed five more minutes sleep… or fifty…Then I realized the sheets weren't soft enough to be the ones in our bedroom and it all came rushing back. I opened my eyes and saw Ranger laughing silently. I must have said most of that out loud.

"Hey the Bat signal worked properly this time," I said. I tried to sit up and the clanging in my head told me that it was a bad idea. I flopped back down on the hospital bed.

"Yeah it did," My flop brought two pieces of information to my attention. My right arm was in a sling and my shoulder was killing me.

"Oww," I whined.

"You dislocated your shoulder when you fell. Otherwise you are fine. You don't even have to stay the night here," he said as he helped me sit up.

"What the hell happened?" I asked and gingerly swung my legs over the side of the bed. The clanging bells were gone so that was good news.

"You threw a very nice punch and then fell down the stairs when he nailed you with the stun gun."

"I meant who was he?" I asked, "Who the hell did I manage to piss off? I swear I haven't done anything recently."

"That was my fault; I fired him today for not reporting your panic button. I guess he took it badly and tried to take you to prove a point. He just didn't know who he was dealing with," he chuckled, "On the upside I think Morelli may have broken the bastard's nose. Morelli is having a bad day."

"What you didn't want a shot at breaking his nose?" I asked.

"Babe he's got bigger things than a broken nose to worry about because I have had a bad day." I was fine with him not elaborating on that.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"Meagan!" Lester bolted upright.

"She's going to be okay Les," Bobby said, "She's in rough shape but she will be okay."

"You fucking drugged me again," Lester growled and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"I was a afraid you'd go off all half cocked if there were complications. Last thing we need is for you to wind up with an assault charge."

"Has she said anything yet?" he asked.

"She hasn't woken up yet but she will."

"How bad is it?"

"She has a natural Iron Deficiency which is why she is always cold. She was anemic already when she got shot and she lost a lot of blood. Her heart stopped twice and she needed transfusions. The doctors are concerned about long term issues from two major injuries in less than two years…." Bobby stopped and looked at his best friend, he could give him the full report later. "She's going to live, she's gonna have two new scars but she's going to be fine."

Lester was only half paying attention anyway; he was staring at her in the bed next to his. She looked so small lying there hooked up to machines. The last time he'd see her like that was just after she'd saved his life and had forgotten that basic things like food, water and sleep were sort of important for her own health while she was doing it. She'd fallen asleep beside his hospital bed waiting for him to regain consciousness. He'd woken up and she'd been completely unresponsive. Sort of like now. He promised her then that if she would just wake up, he'd put a ring on her finger as soon as he was released from the hospital. True to his word he found a jeweller and started shopping for that spectacular diamond on her... he frowned her hand was bare. It took him a second to remember that he'd found the rings in a dish on their bathroom counter and put them in his pocket with every intention of being the one to slip them back onto her finger when she got home.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and slowly stood so he could go to her. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and sat down on the edge of her bed. He unzipped his vest pocket and pulled out her rings and gently slid them onto her finger and placed a kiss on each knuckle on her left hand before lowering it gently back to the mattress without releasing it. With his free hand he gently stroked the hair off of her face. It glowed unnaturally bright against her deathly pale skin. She was very still but she was warm and she was alive and that was comforting. He stayed that way for what felt like an eternity until he felt her hand twitch. He gave it a gentle squeeze and her eyes fluttered opened.

"Hey Meagan, welcome back," he said and she smiled at him. Bobby walked out to summon her doctor and to give them a moment of privacy.

"Hey you, I knew you'd be here when I woke up." She winced as she tried to sit, "Damn. I hate getting shot."  
"Yeah, it's a bitch," Lester said, "But hey at least this way I know you'll get some rest."

"Ass," she said and she pressed a button on the side of the bed to raise it to a more upright position, "I want a kiss."

"You're easy to please," he said.

"With you, I've always been easy," she replied and he chuckled as he kissed her.

"Special Agent Santos?" The doctor asked when he walked in with Bobby. Lester couldn't help the smile at how he had addressed Meagan. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got shot, wrote off a Porsche, climbed a wall, jumped out of a window, stole a car and got shot again."  
"Memory is fine," the doctor said. He checked her over. "You will be here with us for a little while but we'll be moving you to a private room in the morning. You are out of the woods, but your recovery will be slow."  
She nodded not really paying attention. She turned to Lester, "Listen there has to be a change of plans; Joe is going to have to take over from me for the next phase. I'll speak to my Godfather about putting him in charge of the task force that will be doing the final round up of the Slayers out West. Joe is going to need everything we can get out of Big D and his band of Idiots. If you can get me a feed I can talk you and Bobby through the interrogations the way we used to..."

"I don't think so Princess," Joe said from the door.

"It's my show," she growled and winced, "Don't think you can start ordering me around because you've decided to pull that protective alpha male shit on me. Even like this I could still kick your ass without even pulling one of my stitches, so don't even try it." Joe laughed and the doctor looked at her like she was crazy.

"I can put off the interrogations for another day, does that work for you? Brown isn't going anywhere. He's not even conscious yet." She nodded and her eyes began to droop. She hadn't noticed the doctor injecting the pain killers into her IV while she was speaking to Lester. Her mind was getting foggy and she was fighting it. There was still too much to do.

"Sleep Baby, it'll all still be waiting for you when you wake up." and she closed her eyes. The doctor looked at Lester.

"What is going to agitate her more? Telling her to take it easy or letting her run these interrogations?" The doctor asked.

"Honestly? Telling her to take it easy is most likely going to get her trying to sneak out of the hospital. She has some powerful friends that would spring her. If we can get her a feed at least she'll stay in bed."

"It's better than nothing I guess. But I will be monitoring the situation closely. If I think for a second this is causing her undo strain..."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

I sat in the hospital room looking at Meagan. She had a command centre around her hospital bed and a head set on. She was muttering into it asking questions through Lester and Bobby and, weirdly, talking to my mother about the reception at the same time.

Ranger and I were on visitor duty today. Our job was to do whatever she needed and getting whatever she needed from file to a drink of water. Whatever. So far we'd done nothing more strenuous than get coffee for each other. To be honest she was so focused I wasn't sure she even noticed that we were in the room. Ranger assured me that not only did she know we were in the room but she was also aware of just how many times I had snuck out to eat donuts.

"Handsome, tell him we don't care about that. Tell him I have no problem with sending him to Gitmo or someplace equally unpleasant. Explain to him the concept of a federal warrant. I think he's the one with the information we need so maybe you wanna mention me. I recognize him, I'm almost positive our paths have crossed before... No I won't lose sleep over him either...Bobby he's only going to talk if you talk street when you go in there...Helen, I'm telling you right now, you are going to need more bacon than that. Have you seen my boys? Fuck Les Tell him about Peru. Helen I don't think blood sausage is a good idea. Bobby I'm dying here. I'm gonna use that..." I tuned her out, briefly wondering why they were talking breakfast meats for an evening reception.

I leaned into Ranger, "I want to learn to do that."

"What? Interrogation? She'd teach you in a heartbeat."

"No multitasking like that. She has three conversations going on and she's not missing a beat."

"I don't think you can learn that Babe. I don't know if there are many people who can."

"Sir?" Meagan said, "Bobby's in; just tell him what you need." The Director of the New Jersey Field Office switched on his headset and walked out of the room "Les?" Meagan's voice had taken on that creepy quality, "Let me talk to him." The men standing around her bed took a step back and the nurse taking her vitals swallowed hard and was a little shaky when she wrote Meagan's blood pressure down.

"I want to learn that too." I said.

"What?"

"That thing she did. You do it too. She went from businesslike to imposing and it was like there was a pressure change in the room and everyone was intimidated. I want to learn that."

"That can't be learned either Babe. That's earned and you don't want the experience we have that makes that possible."

Damn.

"I just think that it's not fair that she's sitting there in a hospital bed looking like that and she just caused everyone's nuts to go north with one sentence. My skips laugh at me while I'm holding a gun,"I groused.

"Babe."

Meagan was in bed in a silk robe that Lester had given her. It was possibly the brightest pink I had ever seen. Like painfully pink. It suited her though. Nobody had even batted an eye seeing her in the robe; squinted maybe because it was so loud, but she still conveyed professionalism. Seriously it wasn't fair.

"Thanks Les. I'm sure he needed to know that I have a nice ass. Sir? He's all yours." She chuckled as she motioned for her Godfather to take over the interrogation through Lester.

From what I understood the way it worked was that Bobby and Lester sat in the room while she observed. They'd ask questions and press buttons she'd wait until she saw a vulnerability that she could exploit and then she'd give it to them. Lester and Bobby would take over from that point working the stressor with the occasional guidance from Tink until they collectively got them singing like canaries. At that point whoever was in charge, in this case her Godfather aka the Director of the FBI and the Director of the New Jersey Field office, would take over. They'd tell the boys what they needed and the boys would get it out of the detainee.

It would probably have been easier if Bobby and Lester just did the interrogations themselves except that it actually went faster with the three of them working together. What could have taken days had actually taken them a few hours to accomplish.

"Helen, I would actually kill for pot roast, thanks for the offer. The food here is terrible. Ranger and Steph are keeping me company today and I'm sure Steph would like some too. Thanks, I'll talk to you later."

She pulled her head set off and collapsed back into the bed exhausted, and closed her eyes. Her nurse rushed over and checked her vitals again. Meagan sighed and her breathing evened out. She was asleep. The nurse began clearing away the debris from the bed and adjusted Meagan so she would be more comfortable and shut down the monitors.

"Manoso."

Both Ranger and I looked up as her Godfather walked into the room again. Ranger squeezed my hand and the corners of his mouth tipped up, "We'll let her rest now. We'll make sure she gets the recordings. If either of these go sideways we can pick them up again when she's up. You're lucky to have her back; I hope you're willing to loan her to us on occasion?"

"She needs a break from it. A long one. You know her though; in a few months she'll be bored and we won't be able to keep her away," Ranger said. The Director nodded. He looked at Meagan with obvious pride.

"She looks so young when she's sleeping. Hell she is young. My daughter is her age and they are worlds apart maturity wise." He smiled sadly, "I would have taken her in, in a heartbeat after her parents died, but I wasn't in the position to give her what she needed. She was better off with Ella, but then I see her like this and compare her to Lisa and wonder if I did the right thing. Her father would have been very proud of the woman she's become. It's not exactly what he had planned for her and her mother is probably rolling over in her grave..." He chuckled and stroked her hair off her face,"But her father would have been so proud." He tore his eyes away from her face with reluctance and looked at Ranger, "You know who wants to visit her right? We are trying to talk him out of it until she is out of the hospital."

"Her apartment will be finished in a few days, and our building is as secure as his house. We'll have to give a lot of our men the day off but there is a helipad on the roof capable of taking his ride. The whole thing can be done without anyone needing to know it's happening."

"I'll check it out and let him know."

The Director left the hospital room and went across the hall to where they had taken over a waiting room as mission control.

"Who is this house guest?" I asked.

"He threw her wedding for her," Ranger said.  
"My mother is going to flip when she finds out; if you let me meet him I will never have to hear ,'what will the neighbours say?' Ever again. Seriously she can always trot out that one and..."

"Babe, you can't tell anyone he's coming. You have to keep it to yourself."

"But..."  
"Babe."

"Fine. Can I tell her after he leaves?"

"No."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"You know we haven't talked about what happened in that warehouse." Ranger said after we were alone with a sleeping Tink. Lester had returned from TPD and was speaking with the director of the FBI. Meagan might be an orphan but she had, that I knew of, three very powerful men who looked at her like she was their daughter.

"It was like being held prisoner with MacGuyver," I said, "An angry MacGuyver. She doesn't like you car." He grinned.

"She likes my car fine. She was just trying to keep the adrenaline going as long as possible by getting herself worked up."

"No she started bitching about it before she got shot. I believe the words she used were 'Precision instrument my ass.' And then she muttered something about if you are going to drive something that's hard to drive just because you want a challenge, then why the hell are you driving a boring assed 911? She said a car name that sounded like a sneeze and then she told me to get down and she got shot."

"A sneeze?"

"Yes it started with a K. I was kind of scared out of my mind at the time so I wasn't really paying attention. She was driving like a rally car driver and I was afraid of puking on her and destroying her concentration."

"Koenigsegg," he said.

"Bless you," I teased. And he almost rolled his eyes.

"That's the car company." He kissed me and bit my lip in mild reproach and I momentarily forgot my name.

"It's Swedish," Meagan mumbled from the bed, "Where's Les?"

"Here Baby," her voice must have conjured him up because I didn't even hear him open the door, "Did you need something?"

"Just you," She smiled weakly. "Tell Ranger his car isn't cool enough for him."

"Can't do that Gorgeous; I don't have that kind of death wish." He kissed her forehead and then whispered in her ear for a few minutes and she seemed to go back to sleep.

"Not cool enough for me?" Ranger cocked an eyebrow and half smiled, "When did she become a car expert in the first place?"

"Undercover assignment in Italy. She played a spoiled rich girl with a car collection," Lester said, "She got a little obsessed. It's kind of hot."

"Well Les," I said,"In fairness you think everything about her is hot."

"True." He perched on the edge of her bed and she slowly shifted so he could stretch out beside her. Once he was situated she snuggled up to him. I assumed that we were on guard duty as Ranger hadn't seemed inclined to leave all day but it was starting to feel like we were intruding. It was like he was waiting for something, "She thinks Tank needs to ditch the Hummer and get a Range Rover. You need an R8, Bobby should drive a Jag, and Steph should get a TT. She gave you all car makeovers the other night after she came home from dealing with Ramos."

"What do you get to drive?" I asked.

"She couldn't decide," he said, "she said it would have to be unbelievably cool because we'd both be driving it and it would have to have a coolness factor that could compete with ours."

"She'll have to ditch the Ford then."

"Not a chance," she mumbled, "My car has personality and you're still trying to figure out if there is a way to drive it and still maintain your image."

Ranger chuckled softly and stood up. "Let's go Babe," he said.

"Don't we have to stay?"

"Lester has her covered and she's going to be fine. Let's go."


	9. Epilogue

**AN: Just a little cheese to end the story, enjoy!**

It was Christmas Eve. Mom had managed to get the hall for tonight and Meagan and I managed to convince her that a huge Christmas party that had a few wedding elements might actually be the better idea. Then she invited all of Trenton and all of Trenton seemed to show up. The 400 person capacity of the hall was tapped out and the Santos, Manoso and Plum families took up at least 200 people. We could have cut it down but Meagan had insisted on inviting kids. She refused to say why.

The President did make the guest list and had to be told by his advisors that he could not attend for security reasons. As consolation he insisted on paying for it out of his own pocket. He said that it wasn't just for Meagan, whom he adored, it was because he felt we owed people like Ranger and Lester and Meagan for their service. The result of this was that my mother got to speak to the First Lady, and between the two of them they cooked up a spectacular Christmas party that was a serious nod to White Christmas, which happened to be Meagan's favourite movie, right down to the dresses Meagan and I wore. Hers was a calf length light weight red velvet with a full skirt trimmed in white fur, mine was floor length and fitted minus the fur.

When word got out that the First Lady had been involved it spread through the Burg like wildfire and the press were now supposed to show up at the reception. That's when I started to panic. I hated being in the paper. Even for something good like this. Ranger liked being in the paper even less. Meagan and Lester had no such qualms; they'd been international news since the fiasco with Humphries anyway. What was one more story?

So Ranger and I walked into the hall by ourselves. Friends and family blocked the cameras and we went to take our seats at the head table.  
Then the lights dimmed and a spotlight came on over the dance floor. Meagan and Lester were there frozen in a waltz pose. The band played an extended intro to Baby it's Cold Outside. Lester began leading her around the floor in a foxtrot and it looked like they should be in a musical. Lester was in tails, Meagan in her gown and gorgeous mile high heels.

Much to the everyones surprise once the intro was over they began to sing. They were just the right mix of flirtatious and playful. What you would expect from the song but somewhere along the way their bodies became closer you could see actual sexual tension beginning to develop.

We'd watched them rehearse this dance a couple of times without this result. The rehearsed dance flew out the window and it took on a life of it's own. Ranger raised an eyebrow when Lester's hand slipped a little too low on her back. He dipped her low for the line, "take a look outside at the storm." Then while she was singing her line "my sister will be suspicious", while still upside down in the dip, his lips grazed her throat as he pulled her out of the dip to say "God your lips look delicious" and her voice dropped from playful and clear to husky and sultry. It's a good thing the song ended not long after that because we were actually watching a seduction through dance and while never improper it was completely hot and rapidly moving from a G rating to something much much higher.

It was a picture of the dip that made the paper. The lights dimmed and when they came back up again Meagan and Lester were gone. Joe found them in the managers office in a somewhat compromising position on the desk and completely oblivious to the rest of the world. He kicked the shoe that had prevented the door from closing behind them, out of the way, and shut it and made sure that none of the press ventured down the hall.

Lester returned a little while later without Meagan. She was still recovering and the singing and dancing combined with whatever else they had been up to had exhausted her and she was currently resting on the sofa in the managers office. When it became clear that not one of the four of us would be willing to conduct interviews, the press cleared out and the party really got into full swing.

The plan for the evening was to have Christmas music play until around 10:30 so the kids could have some fun before they went home, at 10:30 Meagan and Lester were going to sing again. This time something modern, and not Christmas related, for Ranger and my first dance. Then Sally Sweet's latest band would take over so anyone who wanted to really party, could.

When Lester went back to the office to get Meagan she was gone. My mother went searching for her in the bathroom and she wasn't there either. Lester and Bobby were genuinely getting worried. Apparently she really had been weak after the dance and whatever and Lester had called Bobby back to the office to check her out. That she was missing was a real concern. What if she'd collapsed somewhere? She had been having sudden drops in blood pressure so it was possible. She might have hit her head, anything could have happened.

Ranger was just about to call into the control room to see where her tracker was, when we heard jingle bells. Lots and lots of jingle bells, and the sound of something landing on the roof of the building. There was a hush over the crowd and the kids started going nuts with excitement. "How's he going to get in Aunt Steph? There's no fireplace here?" My niece Mary Alice asked excitedly. I shrugged, I had no idea what was going on. I looked at my mother. She had nothing either.  
I looked at Ranger and Lester. Ranger shook his head. He wasn't sure what was happening but from the look on Lester's face Meagan definitely had something to do with it.

"Oh my gosh mommy look at that SLIDE!" a little boy, one of Ranger's nephews I think, shouted and everyone rushed to the window to see a giant red and white slide coming off the side of the building like a giant candy cane. The drapes had been closed on that side of the hall so who knows how long the slide had been there. It wouldn't have been visible from the road or the parking lot. It could have been there all day and nobody would have noticed.

Two giant brown sacks of brightly coloured presents came whizzing down the slide and landed with a plop in the snow. A deep voice boomed through the sound system, "Thanks for your help. I have a tight schedule tonight; would you mind making sure these get to the right people?"

"No problem Santa!" Meagan's musical voice filled the room. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas Tink!" The hall was filled with the sound of hoof beets and jingle bells and something scraping across the roof. We were all glued to the window. Meagan came zipping down the slide and she landed neatly in the snow. She stood up and brushed the snow off her body. It fell in pretty clouds like fairy dust off her dress. She was wearing a Christmas Red Tinker Bell costume, her hair was done up like Miss Bell's and she was wearing a Santa hat. She had on knee high red and white socks and she looked adorable.

What had us all transfixed were the gossamer pixie wings that were fluttering softly in the light of the flood lamps. She turned to the window, and then hovered a few feet off the ground and said, "Well don't just stand there; come help me bring this stuff inside." There was a stampede to the other side of the room so the kids could go check out the slide and TINKER BELL (!) outside.

I went outside with everyone else. The only way to get to her was a long walk around the building but it was worth it. The kids were beside themselves with excitement and barely reined in by their parents. I was dying to know how she did it.

When we got there I looked around. There was no rig for a harness attached to anything. The kids were all over her and she was back in her regular dress with her hair down.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she said, "I just came out for some fresh air and found these presents."

"But we heard you talk to Santa!" M.A. said, "And you flew! We saw you fly!"

"I think you have had too much sugar," She scolded gently.

"My Mommy doesn't let me eat sugar and I saw you fly too!" Another kid shrieked to a chorus of me toos. Meagan shrugged and kept deflecting, only succeeding in making the kids more crazy. They pestered her for another 10 minutes until someone saw a present with their name on it and they badgered the bigger guys to drag the presents inside. Lester waited until it was just Joe, Ranger, Tink and I before he burst out laughing and then kissed her thoroughly. Ranger waited until they broke apart before he reached into his pocket and dangled Tink's socks in front of her.

"You left these in one of the bags," he grinned. "You realize that all of them are now convinced that you are a real fairy and you are going to be harassed every time we go see the family?"

She just beamed at him.

"How'd you do it? How'd you fly?" I asked. I couldn't help myself; it was just so damned cool. I had figured out the quick costume change easy. I realized that the maribou that was on her dress fell perfectly in line with her Tink skirt. She just had to slip on the full skirt underneath when nobody was looking. But the wings and flying? She couldn't have dismantled a rig that fast. She really was weak and she was currently leaning heavily on Lester.

"A guy with a black ops helicopter owed me a favour," she said, "He'll have left some cool sleigh tracks on the roof too for when the kids come out to try the slide."

"You never do anything small do you Princess?" Joe asked.

"Maybe not but those kids will believe in Santa until they are 30," she replied.

_AN:That's it! Thank you so much for reading. I've really enjoyed writing this story . As mentioned before I have several more stories about Tink and Ranger and Lester and Bobby and... well everyone! If there is anything you would like to read more about, like what happened with the Generals, how she and Ranger met, how she and Lester met, whatever! Let me know and I'll see what I can do! Again thanks so so much for reading!_


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